LINCOLN  ROOM 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


A  BRIEF  TREATISE 


CONSTITUTIONAL 


PARTY  QUESTIONS, 


THE  HISTORY  OF  POLITICAL  PARTIES, 


AS   I  RECEIVED    IT    ORALLY  FROM    TEE  LATE  SENATOR 
STEPHEN  A.  DOUGLAS,   OF  ILLINOIS. 


J.  MADISON  CUTTS, 

BREVET     LIEUTENANT    COLONEL,     U.     8.    A. 


NEW  YORK: 
D.    APPLETON    AND    COMPANY, 

443   &  445    BROADWAY. 
I860. 


ENTEBED,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1866,  by 

D.  APPLETON  &  CO., 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  th« 
Southern  District  of  New  York. 


L'.vccU 


TO   THE   FHIKNDS 
OF  THB 

HON.   STEPHEN  A.   DOUGLAS, 

NORTH,   WEST,   AND   SOUTH; 

AND  IN  AS   ESPECIAL    MANNER   MOST   WABMLY    AND   AFFECTIONATELY 
TO  THB 

HON.  DANIEL  P.   BHODE8, 

OF  CLEVELAND,  OHIO, 
HIS  RELATIVE,  VERT  DEAR  FRIEND,  AND  FAITHFUL  EXECUTOR, 

THI8  VOLUME 
IS   RESPECTFULLY   DEDICATED. 


i  I 


P  K  EF A CE 


IN  the  summer  of  1859  Mr.  Douglas  remained 
in  Washington ;  and  as  I  was  very  desirous  of  re- 
ceiving from  him  a  statement  of  his  own  political 
faith,  with  the  general  views  of  a  statesman  upon 
Constitutional,  Political,  and  Party  Questions,  I 
prepared,  with  his  consent,  a  brief  analysis  of  such 
subjects  as  I  wished  him  to  explain  to  me.  We 
were  in  the  habit  of  spending  an  hour  together  each 
evening,  until  all  the  questions  I  had  proposed  were 
answered. 

The  following  brief  treatise  embodies  all  of 
these  conversations,  which  were  taken  down  in 
writing,  verbally,  at  the  time — Mr.  Douglas  always 
pausing  long  enough  to  enable  me  to  obtain  his 
exact  language. 


6  PREFACE. 

As  these  conversations  were  not  intended  for 
publication,  and  were  entirely  free  and  unrestrained, 
wanting  all  of  that  method  and  careful  thought 
which  the  term  "treatise"  implies,  I  have  been 
induced  to  rely  entirely  upon  the  dignity  of  the 
subjects  discussed,  and  their  general  interest  to 
the  friends  of  the  late  Senator  Douglas,  to  justify 
the  title  I  have  adopted. 

I  am  persuaded  that  this  volume  contains  a  more 
complete  and  perfect  statement  of  his  opinions  than 
any  original  work  of  compilation  by  another  could 
possibly  embody,  and  that  it  will  be  generally  ac- 
ceptable to  his  friends,  and  be  found  worthy  of 
their  perusal,  because  it  came  from  himself. 

J.  MADISON  CUTTS, 
Brevet  Lieutenant  Colonel,  U.  S.  A. 

NEW  YORK  CITY,  June  1,  1866. 


CONTENTS. 


PAOK 

THE  PREAMBLE  OF  THE  CONSTITUTION  DISCUSSED,    .  11 

THE  LEGISLATIVE  POWER  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT,    .  12 

Right  of  Suffrage  under  the  Constitution,       .        .        .        .18 

THE  POWERS  OF  CONGRESS  CONSIDERED,    ...  16 

HISTORY  OF  THE  NATIONAL  BANK 20 

Removal  of  the  deposits, 23 

Specie  circulars,       .     " 26 

The  Sub-Treasury, 2T 

Popular  argument  against  the  Sub-Treasury,         ,        .        .29 

Arguments  in  its  favor, 30 

The  financial  policy  of  the  Democratic  party  adopted  by  the 

people, 32 

PROHIBITION  OF  THE  AFRICAN  SLAVE  TRADE,       .        .  33 
SUSPENSION  OF  THE,  WRIT  OF  HABEAS  CORPUS,       .  35 
History  of  General  Jackson's  suspension  of  the  writ  in  New 
Orleans,  and  arguments  for  and  against  the  bill  refund- 
ing the  fine  imposed  upon  him, 37 

INTERNAL   IMPROVEMENTS,  AND    RIVER  AND  HARBOR  IM- 
PROVEMENTS,            41 

OF  THE  EXECUTIVE  POWER,          .        .        .        .       .        .47 

Power  of  the  President  tp  make  removals,  and  to  fill  vacancies,  48 

OF  THE  JUDICIAL  POWER, 49 


8  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

SLAVERY, 50 

POWER  TO  ACQUIRE  TERRITORY,     .....  51 

ADMISSION  OF  NEW  STATES, 52 

POWER  TO  DISPOSE  OF  PUBLIC  PROPERTY,         .        .  53 


UNITED  STATES, 55 

1.  Of  the  Louisiana  purchase, 55 

2.  Of  Florida,  and  parts  of  Alabama,  Mississippi,  and  Louis- 

iana,     59 

3.  Of  Oregon,  Texas,  California,  and  New  Mexico,     .        .        40 
The  Re-annexation  of  Texas,  Re-occupation  of  Oregon,  and 

the  Mexican  war, I , 

HISTORY  OF  THE  MISSOURI  COMPROMISE,   . 

THE  WILMOT  PROVISO,  AND  THE  COMPROMISE  OF  1850, 

THE  KANSAS-NEBRASKA  BILL,  AND  THE  SUBSEQUENT  HISTORY 

OF  KANSAS  UNDER  THAT  LA-W— -THE   KANSAS-LECOMPTON 

CONTROVERSY,    AND   THE  PERFIDY   OP    MR.    BUCHANAN   AND 
HIS  ADMINISTRATION, 84 

POPULAR  AND  SQUATTER  SOVEREIGNTY  DEFINED  AND 

DISTINGUISHED -  .        .        .123 

ORIGIN,  HISTORY,  AND  STATE  OF  PARTIES,   FROM   THE 

FORMATION   OF   THE    GOVERNMENT    DOWN  TO    THE    ADMINIS- 
TRATION OF  PRESIDENT  PIERCE, 125 

Republican  and  Federal  parties, 127 

Alien  and  Sedition  Laws, 128 

Resolutions  of  1798  and  1799, 129 

Hartford  Convention— War  of  1812, 132 

The  Era  of  Good  Feeling, 133 

Defeat  of  General  Jackson, 135 

Charges  of  bribery  and  corruption  against  Henry  Clay,     .       137 

Democratic  party  assumes  its  name, 137 

South  Carolina  Nullification  doctrine,         ....       138 
General  Jackson  suppresses  nullification,        ....  139 


CONTENTS.  9 

PAOB 

Clay's  Compromise  Tariff  Bill, 140 

Origin  of  the  name  of  the  Whig  party,  and  its  chief  measures 

stated, 141 

General  Jackson  reorganizes  his  Cabinet,  ....       143 
Mr.  Van  Buren's  rejection  by  the  Senate  as  minister  to  Eng- 
land, and  his  subsequent  election  as  President  of  the 

United  States 143 

Van  Buren's  Administration, 145 

Election  of  General  Harrison,  his  death,  Tyler's  succession 

and  administration, 147 

The  Texas  question  :  it  defeats  Mr.  Van  Buren  and  Mr.  Clay, 

and  elects  President  Polk, 149 

Election  of  General  Taylor  in  consequence  of  the  division  in 

the  New  York  Democracy :  this  division  explained,  .  155 
THE  TARIFF — POSITION  OF  PARTIES  THEREON,  ....  158 
THE  PUBLIC  LAND  SYSTEM  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES,  161 

THE  HOMESTEAD  BILL 174 

HISTORY  OF  THE  ILLINOIS  CENTRAL  RAILROAD  BILL,  187 
INDIANS  AND  INDIAN  INTERCOURSE  LAWS,         .        .       200 

THE  RECIPROCITY  TREATY, 203 

THE  MONROE  DOCTRINE, 207 

CENTRAL     AMERICA     AND     THE     CLAYTON-BULWER 

TREATY, 209 

THE  PACIFIC  RAILROAD,      .......       217 


A    BRIEF    TREATISE 


CONSTITUTIONAL  AND  PARTY  QUESTIONS. 


PREAMBLE. 

"  WE,  the  people  of  the  United  States,  in  order  to  form  a 
more  perfect  Union,  establish  Justice,  insure  domestic  Tran- 
quillity, provide  for  the  common  Defence,  promote  the  general 
Welfare,  and  secure  the  blessings  of  Liberty  to  ourselves  and 
our  Posterity,  do  ordain  and  establish  this  Constitution  for 
the  United  States  of  America." 

The  Constitution  is  an  amendment,  in  the  form 
of  a  substitute,  for  the  Articles  of  Confederation ; 
the  successor  of  the  government  of  the  Confeder- 
ation. Chief  Justice  Taney,  in  the  Dred  Scott  case, 
says  not :  that  it  was  a  new  government. 

"  In  order  to  form  a  more  perfect  Union"  de- 
notes and  implies  that  it  is  a  continuation. 


12  PREAMBLE   OF  THE   CONSTITUTION. 

"  We,  the  people  of  the  United  States." 

The  Constitution  was  made  by  the  States,  and 
not  by  the  people  united.  It  should  therefore  read, 
"  We,  the  people  of  the  States  united."  It  was 
voted  for  by  States  in  the  Convention,  submitted  to 
the  people  of  each  State  severally,  and  became  the 
Constitution  only  of  the  States  adopting  it.  It  is  a 
Federal  Constitution,  and  not  a  National  Govern- 
ment. 

•"  Promote  the  general  "Welfare." 

The  Federalist  party  contended  that  this  gave 
Congress  power  to  do  whatever  it  thought  would 
promote  the  general  welfare.  But  the  preamble 
gives  no  power.  It  neither  confers,  enlarges,  nor 
restrains  power;  but  simply  declares  the  objects  for 
which,  and  the  reasons  why  the  powers  subsequently 
and  elsewhere  conferred,  were  conferred. 


ARTICLE  FIRST. 
OF  THE   LEGISLATIVE   POWEE. 

In  the  Confederation  all  powers  were  granted  to 
one  body,  namely,  "  the  United  States  in  Congress 
assembled."  Experience  under  the  Confederation 
taught  that  the  British  system  of  three  depart- 


THE   LEGISLATIVE   POWER.  13 

ments,  with  which  they  had  been  familiar,  was  the 
best.  The  Constitution  was  not  made,  manufac- 
tured. It  grew  as  a  plant,  and  was  the  develop- 
ment of  the  experience  of  ages.  The  Articles  of 
Confederation  were  a  departure  from,  and  they  re- 
turned to  the  system  with  which  they  had  been 
familiar,  both  in  the  British  Constitution  and  in  the 
organization  of  their  own  colonial  assemblies. 

Section  2.  "  And  the  electors  in  each  State  shall  have  the 
qualifications  requisite  for  electors  of  the  most  numerous 
branch  of  the  State  Legislature." 

One  of  the  great  difficulties  encountered  and 
overcome  in  the  formation  of  the  Constitution  was 
to  determine  the  Right  of  Suffrage.  Who  should 
be  the  constituency  of  the  House  of  Represent- 
atives ?  Should  it  be  uniform  in  all  the  States,  or 
not? 

Each  State  had  its  own  system,  and  wanted  it 
adopted.  Some  required  property  qualifications, 
others  not.  The  compromise  was — to  let  each  State 
adopt  its  own  system,  with  the  limitation  contained 
in  the  section  under  consideration.  Here  I  call  your 
attention  to  two  general  propositions  :  1st.  A  man 
may  be  a  citizen  and  not  a  voter,  and  he  may  be  a 
voter  and  not  a  citizen.  2d.  Citizen  of  a  State, 


EIGHT   OF   SUFFRAGE. 

means  citizen  of  the  United  States  resident  in  a 
State. 

No  power  except  that  of  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment can  create  a  citizen.  But  the  privileges  may 
be  conferred,  by  virtue  of  the  sovereignty  of  the 
State,  and  are  good  within  its  limits. 

It  is  difficult  to  give  a  construction,  and  the 
courts  have  only  glanced  at  it.  See  the  Dred  Scott 
decision,  where  the  court  decides  Dred  not  a  citi- 
zen so  as  to  have  the  right  to  sue  under  Art.  3,  Sec. 
2  of  the  Constitution. 

How  many  members  a  State  may  send,  and 
what  their  qualifications,  is  elsewhere  determined. 
But  each  State  is  left  to  decide  for  itself  who  shall 
send  them.  So  also  as  to  who  shall  be  the  electors 
of  the  President.  Each  State  prescribes  who  shall 
be,  and  the  manner  of  the  election.  May  be  a  ne- 
gro, a  woman,  an  unnaturalized  person,  and  may  be 
elected  in  any  way.  In  South  Carolina,  now,  by 
the  Legislature,  and  formerly  so  in  nearly  if  not  all 
the  States. 

The  impression  is  that  an  unnaturalized  person 
cannot  vote  for  a  Federal  officer,  and  so  would  an- 
'swer  ninety-nine  out  of  a  hundred.  Design  and 
necessity  gave  rise  to  the  clause  under  discussion. 
I  first  raised  that  question.  It  is  reported  in  Illinois 


EIGHT   OF   SUFFRAGE.  15 

in  1838  or  1839.  So  that  right  to  vote  is  not  affect- 
ed by  naturalization,  and  is  not  one  of  the  rights 
conferred  by  naturalization.  See  the  contested  case 
of  Jones  and  Botts  of  Virginia  in  1843.  In  1836 
the  Whigs,  Clay  among  them,  opposed  the  admis- 
sion of  Michigan  because  she  gave  unnaturalized 
persons  the  right  to  vote. 

Each  State  may  prescribe  its  own  terms  of 
suffrage,  but  cannot  prescribe  the  qualifications  of 
the  man  who  is  to  hold  the  office.  That  he  should 
be  "  an  inhabitant  of  the  State  in  which  he  shall  be 
chosen,"  was  a  provision  of  the  Constitution  in- 
tended to  correct  abuses  which  had  sprung  up  in 
England. 

A  State  may  elect  by  district,  or  by  general 
ticket,  unless  Congress  should  itself  divide  the 
States  into  districts,  but  it  cannot  compel  the  States 
to  district  themselves.  See  a  report  made  by  me 
upon  this  subject. 

A  State  cannot  so  far  make  a  man  a  citizen  as 
to  confer  upon  him  a  right  to  sue  in  the  United 
States  courts.  It  can  only  confer  upon  him  such 
privileges  of  citizenship  as  its  own  citizens  enjoy, 
but  cannot  make  him  a  citizen. 

A  State  cannot  enlarge  or  diminish  the  quali- 
fications of  Senators  or  Representatives.  -The  only 


16  POWERS   OF   CONGEESS. 

inquiry  is,  have  they  the  qualifications  required  by 
the  Constitution,  namely,  age  arid  inhabitancy  of 
the  State  in  which  or  for  which  they  are  elected. 
See  the  case  of  Trumbull  of  Illinois,  in  the  Senate, 
and,  at  the  same  time,  of  Marshall  of  Illinois,  in  the 
House.  As  to  who  are  "  inhabitants,"  see  the  cases 
of  Felix  Grundy  of  Tennessee,  John  Forsyth  of 
Georgia,  and  Bayly  of  Massachusetts. 

Dallas  passed  the  revenue  tariff  of  1846  by  his 
casting  vote  as  President  of  the  Senate. 

Under  Art.  I.,  Sec.  6,  Clause  2,  a  question  has 
arisen,  and  some  have  held  that  the  position  of  min- 
ister to  a  foreign  country  is  not  an  office  under  the 
Constitution,  and  that  the  President  could  appoint 
one  without  a  law  creating.  I  hold  no  such  thing. 

ARTICLE  I.,  SECTION  8.— THE  POWERS  OF  CONGRESS. 

You  may  strain  a  power  beyond  the  moral 
right. 

The  general  rule  is,  that  few  of  these  powers  are 
concurrent,  and  most  of  them  exclusive.  The  pecu- 
liar phraseology  and  subject  matter  give  rise  to  the 
exceptions  in  which  they  are  held  concurrent. 

Art.  I.,  See.  8,  Clause  ?.   The  Congress  shall  have  power 
"to  establish  Post-Offices  and  Post-Roads." 


POWERS   OF   CONGRESS.  17 

But  not  to  construct  and  build — simply  to  indi- 
cate the  line,  the  route. 

"  To  constitute  tribunals  inferior  to  the  Supreme  Court." 
But  not  to  confer  a  jurisdiction  not  authorized 
in  the  third  article  of  the  Constitution. 

*  ; 

"To  promote  the  progress  of  science  and  the  useful 
arts,"  etc.  ^ 

But  no  power  to  establish  a  University.  The 
power  is  limited  to  the  mode  mentioned,  namely, 
"by  securing  for  limited  times  to  authors  and  in- 
ventors the  exclusive  right  to  their  respective  writ- 
ings and  discoveries." 

Mr.  Madison  offered  in  the  Convention  a  provi- 
sion which  would  have  authorized  the  establishment 
of  a  University,  but  it  was  not  adopted. 

It  has  been  said  that  Congress  would  have  power 
to  establish  a  University  in  the  District  of  Columbia, 
on  the  ground  of  its  exclusive  jurisdiction.  But  ex- 
clusive jurisdiction  means  here,  that  there  shall  he 
no  other,  not  that  it  shall  be  unlimited.  It  must  he 
subordinate  to  the  limitations  of  the  Constitution, 
and  thus  confined  in  its  means.  It  has  power  to 
establish  schools  for  the  District,  but  this  would  not 
authorize  a  University  in  its  character  national,  but 

might  of  a  local  character. 
2 


K 


18  POWEKS    OF   CONGRESS. 

Congress  makes  appropriations  for  railroads,  for 
example,  the  Illinois  Central,  under  its  "  power  to 
dispose  of  and  make  all  needful  rules  and  regulations 
respecting  the  territory  or  other  property  of  the 

United  States,"  conferred  in  Art.  4,  Sec.  3,  Clause 

i 

3  of  the  Constitution.  It  might  give  the  land 
away,  but  there  is  a  moral  obligation  not  to  do  so. 
Congress  gave  the  land  to  the  Illinois  Central,  on 
the  ground  of  the  increase  of  value.  The  lands  had 
been  for  forty  years  unsold.  They  gave  alternate 
sections,  and  sold  readily  the  other  half  for  more 
•than  they  had  asked  for  the  whole.  There  was  also 
a  provision  that  the  railroad  should  carry  the  mails 
for  a  just  and  fair  compensation,  which,  in  case  of 
disagreement,  was  to  be  fixed  by  the  Congress.  The 
grant  was  made  to  the  State,  and  thence  to  the 
company. 

Art,  L,  Section  8,  Clause  18.  "  To  make  all  laws  which 
shall  be  necessary  and  proper  for  carrying  into  execution  the 
foregoing  powers,  and  all  other  powers  vested  by  this  Consti- 
tution in  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  or  in  any  De- 
partment or  Officer  thereof." 

This  clause  confers  no  new  powers.  It  is  only 
declaratory  of  a  rule  of  construction,  which  would 
have  been  precisely  the  same  without  it ;  for  powers 


POWERS   OF   CONGEESS.  19 

were  already  given,  and  necessarily  include  the 
means  of  using  them.  It  would  have  been  implied 
without  this  declaration. 

"  Necessary  and  proper."  Some  say  essentially, 
absolutely  necessary.  But  see  the  reasoning  of  Chief 
Justice  Marshall  in  the  case  of  McCulloch  vs.  State 
of  Maryland.  Carried  to  the  extent  of  his  doctrine, 
you  would  substitute  the  discretion  of  Congress  for 
the  Constitution. 

The  true  doctrine  is,  that  where  there  are  several 
means  adapted  to  the  same  end,  Congress  may  fairly 
choose.  The  means  must  be  appropriate  and  adapt- 
ed to  the  end  authorized  by  the  Constitution,  and  that 
end  must  be  the  one  for  which  the  means  is  used^ 
and  not  incidentally  the  end  proposed.  Hence  we 
exclude  a  National  Bank,  because  you  establish  it 
to  issue  money,  regulate  the  currency,  while  the 
Treasury  Agency  you  make  incidental.  I  will  here 
give  you  the  history  of  the  National  Bank. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  NATIONAL  BANK. 

IMMEDIATELY  after  the  first  Congress  of  1791, 
Alexander  Hamilton,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
recommended  a  bank,  as  one  of  the  means  necessary 
to  restore  the  credit  of  the  Government,  and  to  act 
as  its  financial  agent.  The  two  Houses  of  Congress, 
on  his  recommendation,  passed  the  first  bank  charter. 

General  Washington  expressed  serious  doubts  of 
the  power  to  pass  the  law,  and  took  the  opinions  of 
his  Cabinet,  in  writing.  Thomas  Jefferson,  Secre- 
tary of  State,  was  against  it.  Edmund  Randolph, 
Attorney-General,  expressed  the  same  opinion;  while 
General  Henry  Knox,  Secretary  of  War,  sustained 
Hamilton  in  its  constitutionality.  Washington  re- 
ferred the  opinions  of  Jefferson  and  others  to  Hamil- 
ton for  his  reply,  who  gave  an  elaborate  opinion, 
sustaining  the  right  of  Congress  to  establish  the 
bank. 

On  consideration  of  the  whole  subject,  General 


HISTOKY   OF   THE   NATIONAL   BANK.  21 

"Washington  was  of  the  opinion  that  the  bank  was 
unconstitutional,  and  that  he  ought  to  veto  it,  and 
called  on  Mr.  Madison  to  prepare  for  him  a  veto 
message,  which  he  accordingly  did.  Upon  the  pre- 
sentation of  that  message,  "Washington  again  ex- 
pressed himself  in  doubt,  inclining  to  the  impression 
that  the  power  did  not  exist.  Jefferson  still  ad- 
hered to  his  opinion  that  it  was  clearly  unconstitu- 
tional, but  he  advised  the  President,  that  in  cases 
of  great  and  serious  doubt,  the  doubt  should  be 
weighed  in  favor  of  legislative  authority.  Where- 
upon Washington  signed  the  bill. 

That  first  charter  ran  twenty  years,  from  1791 
to  1811.  On  application  for  its  renewal  in  1811, 
the  Democratic  party  generally  resisted  on  Constitu- 
tional grounds,  and  the  Federal  party  sustained  it. 
Henry  Clay  made  his  first  great  speech  against  it  in 
1811,  and  the  bill  for  re-charter  was  defeated,  and 
the  bank  expired.  The  war  of  1812  immediately 
intervened.  The  finance,  currency,  and  credit  of 
the  country  became  greatly  disturbed,  and  an  im- 
pression was  made  on  the  minds  of  the  American 
people  that  a  bank  was  necessary  to  restore  them. 
In  1815  a  bank  charter  passed,  received  votes  from 
both  parties,  and  opposition  from  both,  and  Mr. 
Madison  vetoed  it.  The  next  year  John  C.  Cal- 


22  HISTORY   OF  THE   NATIONAL   BANK. 

houn,  as  a  leader  in  the  Republican  or  Democratic 
party,  introduced  a  bill,  with  the  sanction  of  a  large 
portion  of  the  party,  for  a  National  Bank.  It  passed 
both  houses,  and  Mr.  Madison,  waiving  his  scruples, 
and  yielding  to  what  seemed  the  public  opinion  of  the 
country,  signed  it.  That  charter  also  ran  for  twenty 
years,  until  1836,  and  for  the  ensuing  five  years 
ceased  to  be  a  party  question.  All  acquiesced  in  it, 
though  a  great  portion  of  all  the  leading  Demo- 
crats still  retained  their  opposition ;  but  it  did  not 
go  into  the  elections,  and  nobody  knew  whether  it 
would  ever  become  a  party  question  again. 

But  General  Jackson  became  President  in  1829, 
and,  in  his  message  of  1830  or  1831,  called  the  at- 
tention of  the  country  to  the  bank,  whose  charter 
would  expire  in  1836,  with  intimations  of  doubts  as 
to  its  constitutionality.  In  1832,  preceding  the 
Presidential  election,  and  with  a  view  to  influence 
it,  the  opponents  of  General  Jackson  brought  in  a 
bill  for  the  re-charter  of  the  bank,  and  pressed  it 
through  both  houses  of  Congress,  in  order  to  com- 
pel Jackson  to  sign  it  before  the  election,  or  to  en- 
counter the  opposition  of  the  bank,  and  all  its 
friends,  in  "the  coming  election.  Large  numbers  of 
Jackson's  best  friends,  probably  including  a  majority 
of  the  leading  men  in  both  houses  of  Congress, 


HI8TOKY   OF   THE   NATIONAL   BANK.  23 

urged  him  to  sign  the  bill.  Not  that  they  believed, 
or  pretended  to  believe,  that  the  bank  ought  to  be 
re-chartered,  but  they  were  clearly  of  the  opinion 
that  if  he  did  veto  it,  he  would  be  defeated  for  re- 
election, and  the  opposite  party  would  come  into 
power,  and  not  only  re-charter  the  bank,  but  carry 
out  all  their  other  measures,  to  which  the  Democratic 
party  were  opposed.  Jackson  replied,  that  the  bank 
was  unconstitutional,  corrupt,  and  insolvent.  He 
persisted  in  declaring  it  insolvent,  though  then  at 
130,  but  ultimately,  not  a  cent  on  the  dollar.  He 
declared  that  he  would  veto  it,  if  it  was  the  last  act 
of  his  life,  and  it  sank  the  party  with  him ;  telling 
those  of  his  friends  who  were  afraid  of  the  conse- 
quences, that  they  could  desert  and  go  over  to  the 
bank,  and  he  would  whip  the  whole  of  them.  He 
vetoed  it  on  the  10th  of  July,  1832,  and  was  re- 
elected  by  a  large  majority  in  November  of  the  same 
year  on  that  issue. 

In  September,  1833,  Duane  was  removed  from 
the  Treasury  Department  because  he  refused  to  re- 
move the  deposits,  which  Jackson  insisted  on,  upon 
the  ground  that  the  bank  was  corrupt  and  insolvent, 
using  its  funds  to  control  elections,  and  to  corrupt 
the  people.  Jackson  sent  for  Eoger  B.  Taney,  and 
said  to  him,  "You  are  Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 


24:  HISTORY   OF   THE   NATIONAL   BANK. 

/  want  the  deposits  removed"  Taney  removed 
them,  and  then  the  excitement  was  still  greater. 
Immediately  the  bank  curtailed  discounts  in  every 
part  of  the  country  at  once,  and  refusing  to  discount 
for  those  who  opposed  the  bank,  broke  every  man 
not  in  its  favor,  still  extending  loans  to  those  in 
favor,  to  buy  the  property  of  those  who  were 
obliged  to  sacrifice.  The  distress  was  terrible ;  you 
can  examine  for  yourself  the  petitions  portraying  it. 
There  was  the  greatest  panic,  and  the  wildest  frenzy, 
when  Congress  met  in  the  winter  of  1833. 

The  Senate  passed  resolutions  of  censure.  Jack- 
son protested ;  said  he  was  not  before  them  for  im- 
peachment. Many  of  Jackson's  friends  deserted 
him  in  the  House,  and  they  passed  resolutions  in 
favor  of  the  return  of  the  deposits.  The  Govern- 
ment had  seven,  out  of  the  thirty-five  directors  of  the 
bank,  and  Jackson  called  on  them  to  furnish  a  list 
of  loans,  by  which  he  showed  that  nearly  every 
member  who  had  deserted  him,  had  received  loans 
from  the  bank.  Henry  Clay  had  got  round  for 
the  bank,  so  also  had  Webster,  who,  in  1815,  was 
against  it,  but  was  now  a  leader,  and  for  it.  It 
was  a,  Whig  measure.  But  Calhoun,  who  was  the 
author  of  the  bank  charter  in  1817,  had  got  round, 
and  was  now  declaring  it  palpably  unconstitutional, 


HISTORY   OF   THE   NATIONAL   BANK.  25 

but  still  declared  that  Jackson  had  violated  the  Con- 
stitution in  removing  the  deposits,  and  the  opposi- 
tion to  Jackson  on  that  question  was  conducted  by 
Clay,  Calhoun,  and  Webster,  in  concert. 

Jackson  appealed  to  the  people  at  the  next  State 
elections  on  these  questions,  on  the  ground  that  the 
bank  was  unconstitutional  and  corrupt,  using  money 
to  control  elections  and  the  people,  and  to  buy  up 
their  representatives.  This  was  in  1834  and  1835. 
The  people  responded,  and  returned  a  majority  in 
favor  of  Jackson  and  his  policy;  and  the  Senate, 
there  being  a  majority  in  both  Houses  in  his  favor, 
expunged  the  resolutions  against  him. 

The  bank  then  again  enlarged  its  discounts, 
stimulated  the  prices  of  property,  of  stocks,  and  the 
importation  of  goods,  and  the  consequent  means  of 
revenue,  beyond  any  parallel  known  in  the  world. 
The  revenue  was  being  piled  up  in  the  State  banks 
to  an  unparalleled  extent.  The  banks,  on  the 
strength  of  the  surplus  not  used,  increased  dis- 
counts, wJiich  increased  importations  and  revenue. 
Speculations  in  the  public  lands  raged  in  the  same 
ratio,  until  their  sales  ran  up  in  1836  to  twenty-four 
millions,  as  against  the  ordinary  amount  of  three 
millions — all  paid  for  in  bank  notes,  which  same 
went  into  the  bank  again,  and  formed  the  basis  of 


26  HISTORY   OF   THE   NATIONAL   BANK. 

additional  discounts,  thus  aggravating  the  evil,  until 
Jackson  discovered  that  unless  that  system  could  be 
checked,  the  State  banks  and  all  the  banks  in  the 
country  would  necessarily  be  exploded,  and  the 
whole  become  insolvent ;  the  Government  thus 
having  its  revenues  piled  up  in  them,  which  would 
exist  on  their  books,  but  not  in  fact.  "With  a  view 
to  check  this,  Jackson  issued  a  circular,  called 
Specie  Circular,  authorizing  all  receivers  of  public 
money  to  refuse  any  thing  but  gold  or  silver  in  pay- 
ment of  duties,  or  for  lands.  Instantly  speculation 
was  checked,  but  every  speculator  became  and  was 
the  inveterate  enemy  of  Jackson  and  of  his  party. 

On  the  4th  of  March,  1837,  the  charter  of  the 
National  Bank  expired,  but  the  State  of  Pennsyl- 
vania had,  in  the  mean  time,  re-chartered  it  as  a 
State  bank,  and  under  its  new  organization  it  had 
still  increased  its  discounts.  In  May,  1837,  the  ex- 
plosion came.  The  United  States  banks  and  State 
banks  throughout  the  whole  country  suspended,  be- 
ginning in  New  York  and  Pennsylvania*,  and  fol- 
lowing in  every  city  and  town,  as  the  news  reached 
them,  until  in  ten  days  there  was  not  a  specie-pay- 
ing bank  in  the  country.  The  Federal  Government 
was  instantly  reduced  to  insolvency,  without  a  dol- 
lar ;  the  State  banks  being  unable  to  pay,  and  the 


THE    SUB-TREASURY.  27 

national  banks  holding  on  to  the  specie.  Every 
State  became  insolvent  for  the  same  reason,  namely, 
keeping  deposits  in  the  banks,  and  the  banks  all 
failed.  Merchants,  insurance  companies,  all  failed, 
and  there  was  universal  bankruptcy,  Federal,  State, 
and  individual,  throughout  the  length  and  breadth 
of  the  land. 

Mr.  Yan  Buren  being  President  (1837)  imme- 
diately issued  a  proclamation  to  assemble  Congress 
to  provide  a  revenue,  and  in  his  message  recom- 
mended to  Congress  his  celebrated  Sub-Treasury 
scheme,  which  in  the  language  of  the  day,  proposed 
to  divorce  the  Government  from  all  banking  insti- 
tutions, and  in  place  of  them,  as  fiscal  agents,  to  ap- 
point Assistant  Treasurers  of  the  United  States  in 
the  principal  cities,  who  should  receive  and  disburse 
the  public  revenue,  keeping  it  in  the  United  States 
Treasury,  and  making  it  a  criminal  offence  to  re- 
ceive or  pay  any  thing  but  gold  or  silver,  loan  any 
public  money,  deposit  it  in  any  bank,  or  use  it  for 
any  but  public  purposes. 

Calhoun  joined  Yan  Buren,  and  dissolved  his 
connection  with  Clay  and  Webster  on  the  Sub- 
Treasury,  and  the  Sub-Treasury  then  became  the 
issue  between  the  Whigs  and  Democrats.  The 
banks  and  speculators  all  joined  the  Whigs.  The 


28  THE   STJB-TEEASDEY. 

Sub-Treasury  bill  passed  in  1838  or  1839,  and  thus 
freed  the  Government  from  the  banks. 

It  took  the  country  many  years  to  recover  from 
the  general  bankruptcy,  and  in  1840  the  Whigs, 
with  Harrison  and  Tyler,  appealed  to  the  public  to 
make  a  change  in  the  Government,  charging  the 
Democratic  party  as  responsible  for  all  the  evils 
which  had  befallen  the  country ;  that  its  policy 
had  broken  the  National  Bank  and  the  State  banks, 
and  all  the  moneyed  institutions  of  the  country,  and 
brought  universal  bankruptcy  to  every  man's  door, 
and  crushed  the  merchants.  The  whole  people  be- 
ing convinced  that  no  change  could  be  for  the  worse, 
financially  speaking,  determined  to  see  if  it  could 
be  for  the  better.  Mr.  Yan  Buren  was  defeated, 
carrying  but  seven  States — two  free,  New  Hamp- 
shire and  Illinois,  with  five  Southern,  Virginia, 
South  Carolina,  Alabama,  Missouri,  and  Arkansas. 

The  Whig  party  having  thus  acquired  the  power, 
proceeded  to  repeal  the  Sub-Treasury,  and  to  char- 
ter a  Bank  of  the  United  States,  to  take  its  place 
as  the  fiscal  agent  of  the  Government.  General 
Harrison  having  died,  Mr.  Tyler  became  President, 
and  vetoed  the  bank  charter,  in  accordance  with 
the  principles  which  he  had  proclaimed  during  his 
whole  life.  It  is  here  to  be  remembered  that  Har- 


POPULAR  ARGUMENT  AGAINST  THE  SUB-TREASURY.  29 

rison  and  Tyler  had  been  elected  by  the  Whigs,  but 
the  Whigs  during  the  election  had  sunk  the  bank 
issue,  keeping  up  their  opposition  to  the  Sub-Treas- 
ury as  an  issue,  and  this  in  cfrder  to  get  the  votes 
of  the  anti-bank  Jackson  men,  who  were  opposed 
to  Mr.  Yan  Buren  and  to  his  Sub-Treasury  policy. 
But  they  revived  the  bank  issue  the  moment  they 
had  succeeded  in  getting  power.  Harrison  and 
Tyler  were  both  against  the  bank.  Mr.  Tyler  was 
always  an  anti-bank  man,  but  was  opposed  to  the 
Sub-Treasury.  He  therefore  vetoed  the  bank  char- 
ter, but  signed  the  bill  repealing  the  Sub-Treasury. 
The  popular  argument  against  the  Sub- Treasury 
was,  that  it  provided  one  currency  for  the  people  and 
another  for  the  Government ;  that  it  increased  the 
patronage  of  the  Federal  Government,  by  the  ap- 
pointment of  sub-treasurers  and  agents  at  great  cost, 
to  keep  the  money,  which  had  been  previously  kept 
by  the  banks  for  nothing ;  that  it  would  have  the 
effect  of  drawing  all  the  gold  and  silver  through 
land  offices  and  the  customs  into  the  Federal  Treas- 
ury, there  to  be  locked  up  beyond  the  reach  of  the 
people,  thus  depriving  the  banks  which  furnished 
the  currency  of  the  country  from  having  any  specie 
basis  with  which  to  redeem  their  paper ;  that  it 
made  an  odious,  unjust  distinction  between  the  em- 


30     ARGUMENT   IN   FAVOK   OF   THE   SUB-TEEASUEY. 

ployes  of  the  Federal  Government,  who  received 
their  pay  in  specie,  and  the  workingmen  throughout 
the  country,  who  received  their  wages  in  broken- 
bank  paper. 

The  argument  in  favor  was,  that  by  requiring 
all  public  dues  to  be  paid  in  gold  and  silver,  it  cre- 
ated a  demand  for  specie,  thus  increased  the  specie 
basis  in  our  currency,  and  kept  the  gold  in  the 
country  by  its  constant  circulation  in  being  paid  in 
and  out  of  the  Treasury  in  all  Federal  operations, 
in  full  accordance  with  the  Constitution,  which  pro- 
hibits any  other  legal  tender  than  gold  and  silver ; 
that  while  the  old  system  of  depositing  the  public 
money  in  banks  stimulated  speculation  and  over- 
trading by  becoming  a  basis  for  increased  bank 
issues,  which  stimulated  additional  importations, 
and  thus  increased  the  surplus  revenue  in  the  banks 
as  the  basis  again  for  additional  circulation,  this 
process  constantly  increasing  and  aggravating  the 
evils  which  had  lead  to  the  explosion,  on  the  other 
hand  requiring  gold  and  silver  in  payment  of  reve- 
nue, and  keeping  that  revenue  in  the  Treasury  of 
the  country,  produced  a  check  upon  the  over-issues 
of  the  banks,  and  tended  to  restrain  the  excesses  of 
speculation  and  overtrading,  by  withdrawing  the 
surplus  revenue  from  the  circulation  of  the  country, 


MEASURES   OF   TYLEfi's   ADMINISTRATION.  31 

and  confining  the  business  of  the  country  within  its 
legitimate  limits,  while  at  the  same  time  it  rendered 
the  Government  independent  of  the  banks,  by  al- 
ways placing  and  having  its  revenue  within  its  own 
keeping,  not  exposed  to  the  danger  of  bank  failures. 
In  addition  to  the  repeal  of  the  Sub-Treasury, 
and  the  chartering  of  a  National  Bank,  the  Whigs 
in  1842  passed  a  high  protective  tariff,  carrying  the 
protective  principle  to  a  greater  extent  than  had 
ever  been  done  in  the  history  of  the  country,  and 
at  the  same  time  they  withdrew  their  support  from 
Mr.  Tyler  and  his  administration,  denouncing  him 
and  his  supporters  as  traitors  to  the  Whig  party  for 
having  vetoed  the  bank,  although  he  had  signed  their 
bills  for  the  repeal  of  the  Sub-Treasury  and  for  the 
protective  tariff.   Upon  the  expiration  of  Mr.  Tyler's 
term  of  office  the  Democratic  party  again  regained 
possession  of  the  Government  on  those  distinct  issues 
by  the  election  of  Mr.  Polk  over  Mr.  Clay.     It  is 
proper  to  remark,  however,  that  during  the  last 
years  of  Mr.  Tyler's  administration  a  treaty  was 
made  with  the  Republic  of  Texas  for  the  annexation 
of  that  State  to  the  Federal  Union,  which  having 
been  rejected  by  the  Senate  became  one  of  the  issues 
of  the  Presidential  election,  supported  by  the  Dem- 
ocrats and  opposed  by  the  Whigs.     It  had  not  been 


32  MEASURES   OF   POLKAS   ADMINISTRATION. 

in  the  Senate,  however,  a  party  question.  The  old 
fogies  of  the  Democratic  party  joined  with  the 
Whigs  to  reject  the  treaty. 

Immediately  after  their  accession  to  power  the 
Democratic  party  reestablished  the  Sub-Treasury 
system  and  repealed  the  protective  tariff  of  1842, 
and  enacted  in  its  place  the  revenue  tariff  of  1846, 
and  also  annexed  Texas  and  admitted  it  into  the 
Union,  which  gave  rise  to  the  Mexican  war. 

The  country  acquiesced  in  the  financial  policy 
adopted  by  the  Democratic  party  in  1846,  since 
which  time  the  tariff  has  ceased  to  be  a  party  ques- 
tion, the  great  majority  of  both  parties  now  acqui- 
escing substantially  in  the  revenue  principle  in  an- 
tagonism to  the  protective  policy^  and  the  Sub- 
Treasury  having  worked  so  satisfactorily  as  to  re- 
ceive the  support  of  all  parties  under  every  admin- 
istration which  has  succeeded,  without  opposition  or 
complaint.  Here  ends  the  financial  chapter  in  our 
history  !  ! 


PEOHIBITION    OF    THE    AFKICAN 
SLAVE  TKADE. 

Art.  I.,  SectionQ,  Clause  1.  "The  migration  or  impor- 
tation of  such  persons  as  any  of  the  States  now  existing  shall 
think  proper  to  admit,  shall  not  he  prohibited  hy  the  Congress 
prior  to  the  year  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  eighty  but  a 
tax  or  duty  may  be  imposed  on  such  importation  not  exceed- 
ing ten  dollars  for  each  person." 

THE  section  of  the  Constitution  authorizing  the 
prohibition  of  the  African  slave  trade  after  the  year 
1808,  had  its  origin  in  a  disagreement  between  the 
delegates  in  the  convention  which  framed  the  Con- 
stitution. One  party,  particularly  the  delegates  of 
South  Carolina  and  Georgia,  demanded  the  instant 
and  unconditional  prohibition  of  the  African  slave 
trade  on  moral  and  religious  grounds,  while  the  dele- 
gates from  the  extreme  South  insisted  that  it  was  a 
legitimate  commerce,  involving  no  other  considera- 
tions than  those  of  a  sound  public  policy,  which  each 


34:  AFRICAN   SLAVE   TRADE. 

State  ought  to  be  permitted  to  determine  for  itself. 
Each  party  adhered  to  its  position  resolutely,  with 
the  distinct  avowal  that  they  would  maintain  it  at 
all  hazards,  until  both  became  convinced  that  the 
convention  must  break  up  without  forming  a  Con: 
stitution,  and  the  Confederacy  divide  into  two  or 
more  fractions,  thus  blotting  out  all  the  glories  of  the 
Revolution,  and  destroying  its  benefits,  unless  a  com- 
promise could  be  effected  on  the  common  ground  of 
such  mutual  concessions  as  were  necessary  to  pre- 
serve the  Union,  and  independence  of  the  States. 
Such  a  compromise  was  effected,  and  incorporated 
into  the  Constitution,  by  which  it  was  understood 
that  the  slave  trade  should  continue  a  legitimate 
commerce  in  those  States  which  chose  to  sanction  it, 
until  the  year  1808,  from  and  after  which  time  Con- 
gress might,  and  would  prohibit  it  forever  through- 
out the  limits  of  America,  and  pass  all  laws  neces- 
sary to  make  such  prohibition  effectual.  This  was 
the  understanding  with  which  this  section  was  incor- 
porated into  the  Constitution. 


SUSPENSION  OF  THE  WEIT  OF  HABEAS 
COEPUS. 

Art.  L,  Sec.  9,  Clause  2.  "  The  privilege  of  the  writ  of 
Habeas  Corpus  shall  not  be  suspended,  unless  when  in  cases 
of  Rebellion  or  Invasion  the  public  Safety  may  require  it." 

WE  have  to  consider  the  suspension  of  the  writ, 
the  power  of  anybody  to  suspend,  except  the  Con- 
gress, and  then  only  under  the  circumstances  de- 
scribed by  the  Constitution. 

The  most  memorable  case  in  our  history  of  sus- 
pending the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  without  the  au- 
thority of  statute  was  in  1814,  when  General  Jack- 
son was  in  command  of  the  Southwest  division  of 
the  United  States,  and  was  engaged  in  repelling  an 
invasion  of  the  British  army  under  the  command  of 
General  Packenham.  General  Jackson  established 
his  headquarters  in  the  city  of  New  Orleans,  where 
he  found  an  immense  number  of  foreigners  (they 


36  WEIT   OF   HABEAS   CORPUS. 

had  recently  come  into  the  Union,  and  were  French 
and  Spanish),  who  had  no  sympathy  with  the  United 
States,  and  were  either  friendly  to  the  British,  or 
preparing  to  make  terms  with  the  enemy  to  save 
their  property.  General  Jackson  suspected,  among 
others,  a  man  by  the  name  of  Lonelier  with  being 
a  spy,  and  furnishing  information  to  the  British 
commander.  Relying  upon  these  suspicions,  which 
he  believed  to  be  well  founded,  but  without  having 
legal  evidence  of  the  fact,  and,  having  to  provide 
for  all  this,  previously  declared  martial  law,  he 
arrested  and  imprisoned  him,  and  his  supposed  con- 
federates. 

Judge  Hall,  of  the  United  States  District  Court, 
issued  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus  for  the  release  of 
Lonelier,  and  directed  Jackson  to  bring  him  before 
the  Court.  To  which  Jackson  replied  by  arresting 
the  Judge,  and  sending  him  outside  of  the  limits  of 
the  city,  which  he  had  previously  declared  to  be  un- 
der martial  law. 

About  the  same  time  General  Jackson  was  in- 
formed and  believed,  that  the  Legislature  of  the 
State  of  Louisiana,  then  in  session  in  the  city  of 
New  Orleans,  were  about  passing  an  act  surrender- 
ing the  city  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy;  and  in 
order  to  prevent  such  a  result,  he  sent  a  detachment 


WRIT   OF   HABEAS   CORPUS.  37 

of  troops  to  surround  the  Legislative  Hall,  and  hold 
the  members  as  prisoners  in  .their  own  hall,  cutting 
off  all  communication  with  anybody  except  himself. 
He  then  proceeded  to  meet  the  enemy,  which  he  did, 
first  on  the  night  of  the  23d  of  December,  1814, 
and,  finally,  on  the  8th  of  January,  1815,  won  the 
final  battle,  by  which  the  British  army  were  routed 
and  returned  to  their  ships,  peace  having  been 
previously  signed  in  Europe,  and  news  of  the  fact 
reaching  New  Orleans  after  the  battle.  General 
Jackson  then  withdrew  his  declaration  of  martial 
law,  and  restored  the  civil  authorities.  He  then  de- 
livered' himself  up  to  the  court,  and  was  fined  one 
thousand  dollars,  which  he  immediately  paid. 

Afterwards,  while  General  Jackson  was  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States,  he  would  never  permit 
any  of  his  friends  to  propose  an  act  of  Congress  for 
the  remission  of  his  fine  ;  but  after  he  retired  from 
the  Presidency  such  a  proposition  was  introduced, 
from  time  to  time,  until  it  passed  eventually,  at  the 
session  of  1843,  or  1844. 

Pending  the  bill  for  the  remission  of  the  fine, 
the  opponents  of  General  Jackson  opposed  '  the 
measure,  upon  the  ground  that  his  declaration  of 
martial  law  and  imprisonment  of  the  civil  author- 
ities was  a  violation  of  the  Constitution  of  the 


38  GENERAL   JACKSON^   FINE   REFUNDED. 

United  States ;  consequently  that  it  was  the  duty  of 
Judge  Hall  to  vindicate  the  dignity  of  his  Court  and 
the  civil  authorities  by  arresting  and  imprisoning 
him,  and  that  the  fine  should  not  be  refunded,  for 
the  reason  that  it  would  be  licensing  and  sanction- 
ing a  violation  of  the  Constitution,  and  cast  a  re- 
flection upon  the  Court  for  having  performed  its 
solemn  duty. 

In  reply,  the  friends  of  General  Jackson  had  all 
admitted  the  violation  of  the  Constitution  and  laws 
by  the  declaration  of  martial  law,  but  justified  the 
act  upon  the  ground  that  it  was  necessary  to  save 
the  city  of  New  Orleans,  and  the  State  of  Louisiana 
from  the  ravages  of  the  enemy.  This  necessity  was 
admitted  by  the  other  side,  but  still  it  was  argued, 
that  having  violated  the  Constitution,  he  must  bear 
the  consequences,  although  governed  by  patriotic 
motives.  I  was  the  first  man  who  denied  that  Gen- 
eral Jackson  violated  the  Constitution,  by  his  decla- 
ration of  martial  law,  and  insisted  that  General 
Jackson  having  been  charged  under  the  Consti- 
tution and  laws  with  the  preservation  of  the  city  of 
New  Orleans  and  the  surrounding  country  from  the 
assaults  of  the  enemy,  was  clothed  with  all  the 
power  necessary  to  the  performance  of  that  duty ; 
that  by  imposing  a  duty,  the  means  necessary  to  its 


GENERAL   JACKSON^   FINE   REFUNDED.  39 

performance  were  included,  and  if  the  declaration 
of  martial  law  was  necessary  and  indispensable,  as 
was  admitted  on  all  hands,  that  necessity  conferred 
the  authority  and  limited  its  extent  and  duration. 
The  authority  went  just  so  far  as  the  necessity  ex- 
tended, and  ceased  when  it  ceased. 

John  Quincy  Adams,  while  he  denied  the  neces- 
sity, admitted  my  argument,  and  though  he  voted 
against  refunding  the  fine,  he.  censured  those  who, 
believing  in  the  necessity,  also  voted  in  the  negative. 
The  money  was  refunded. 


Art.  I,  Sec.  9,  Clause  5.  "  No  tax  or  duty  shall  be  laid  on 
articles  exported  from  any  State." 

For  commercial  purposes  the  whole  United 
States  are  one  State,  or  commercial  district.  They 
are  not  foreign  to  each  other. 

Art.  I.,  Sec.  9,  Clause  6.  "No  preference  shall  he  given 
by  any  regulation  of  commerce  or  revenue  to  the  ports  of  one 
State  over  those  of  another ;  nor  shall  vessels  bound  to,  or 
from,  one  State,  be  obliged  to  enter,  clear,  or  pay  duties  in 
another." 

This  clause  means  simply  that  duties  shall  not 
be  imposed  simply  because  the  vessel  goes  across  the 
State  line,  nor  that  on  entering  State  ports  the  ves- 


40  KIVER  AND   HARBOR   IMPROVEMENTS. 

sel  may  not  be  obliged  to  pay  the  same  duties  of 
tonnage,  etc.,  as  vessels  of  the  State  to  which  the 
ports  belong.  See  in  this  connection — 

'    Art.  I.,  Sec.  10,   Clause  3.     "  No  State  shall  without  the 
consent  of  Congress,'1''  etc. 

Hence  I  hold  that  a  duty  may  be  imposed  for 
river  and  harbor  improvements,  which  question  we 
will  here  consider,  together  with  that  of  internal 
improvements. 


INTERNAL  IMPROVEMENTS. 

RIVER   AND    HARBOR   IMPROVEMENTS. 

THE  advocates  of  a  system  of  internal  improve- 
ments, by  the  Federal  Government,  do  not  agree 
among  themselves  in  respect  to  the  clause  of  the 
Constitution  which  confers  the  power.  Some  con- 
tend that  the  power  exists  under  the  clause  for 
"  common  defence  and  general  welfare."  The  ad- 
vocates of  the  power  under  this  clause  are  again 
divided  into  those  who  claim  it  under  the  war 
power  for  the  common  defence,  and  who  limit  its 
exercise  to  such  works  as  are  necessary  for  the  de- 
fence of  the  country,  while  others  claim  that  Con- 
gress may  make  any  road,  canal,  or  other  work  of 
internal  improvement  which  is  for  the  general  wel- 
fare of  the  United  States.  Others  again  derive  the 
power  from  the  clause  which  authorizes  Congress 
"  to  establish  post-offices  and  post-roads ;  "  while  the 
general  opinion  among  those  who  advocate  internal 


42  KIVEK   AJSTD   HAEBOK  IMPROVEMENTS. 

improvements  by  the  General  Government,  and  es- 
pecially the  friends  of  river  and  harbor  improve- 
ments, claim  to  derive  the  power  from  the  clause 
which  authorizes  Congress  "  to  regulate  commerce 
with  foreign  nations,  and  among  the  several  States, 
and  with  the  Indian  tribes." 

I,  and  others,  contend  that  it  is  wiser  and  better 
to  allow  each  State  to  improve  its  own  rivers  and 
harbors ;  that  the  "  duty  of  tonnage"  was  inserted  for 
this  express  purpose,  and  for  that  reason,  as  asserted 
in  debate  at  the  time,  and  the  form  originally  was, 
"that  the  States  reserve  the  power  for  imposing 
duties  of  tonnage."  But  it  was  suggested  that  this 
would  interfere  with  the  power  of  Congress  to  regu- 
late commerce,  which  ought  to  be  exclusive,  and  it 
was  then  modified,  as  in  the  Constitution,  so  as  to 
read,  " without  the  consent  of  Congress"  so  that  the 
States  might  not  conflict  with  the  general  power  of 
Congress,  ~but  that  with  the  consent  of  Congress,  they 
might  lay  duties  of  tonnage. 

It  is  generally  conceded  now  that  under  the  pro- 
vision to  provide  for  the  general  defence,  Congress 
may  construct  such  military  works  and  roads  as  are 
necessary  for  that  purpose,  and  are  made  for  that 
purpose,  but  must  not,  under  pretence  of  general 
defence,  make  artificial  channels  of  commerce  for 


INTERNAL   IMPBOVEMENTS.  43 

commercial,  and  not  military  purposes.  The  gen- 
eral welfare  power  is  generally  abandoned.  Post- 
offices  and  post-roads  are  generally  construed  now,  to 
confer  the  right  to  designate  the  route  over  which 
the  mail  shall  go,  but  not  to  make  the  road.  Under 
the  power  to  regulate  commerce  a  majority  believe 
that  Congress  may  improve  rivers  and  harbors,  but 
they  doubt  the  expediency.  A  majority  do  not  yet 
believe  that  the  States  may  do  so  by  means  of 
duties. 

Calhoun  spent  the  greater  portion  of  his  life  in 
advocating  internal  improvements.  He  proposed  to 
build  an  arched  covered  road  from  Buffalo  to  New 
Orleans.  He  was  a  visionary !  ]STo  Statesman ! 

On  the  subject  of  internal  improvements,  I  refer 
you  to  the  report  of  J.  C.  Calhoun,  as  Secretary  of 
War  under  Mr.  Monroe,  and  the  message  of  Mr. 
Monroe  in  favor  of  a  system  of  internal  improve- 
ments under  the  General  Government.  See  also 
the  veto  messages  of  General  Jackson  upon  the 
Maysville  road  bill,  in  Kentucky,  and  upon  the 
"Wabash  Biver  improvement  bill ;  the  veto  message 
of  President  Polk  upon  the  River  and  Harbor  Im- 
provement bill ;  report  of  J.  C.  Calhoun  to  the  Mem- 
phis .  Convention,  upon  the  improvement  of  the 
Western  rivers,  in  which  he  called  them  "  inland 


44r  INTERNAL   IMPROVEMENTS. 

seas,"  and  to  the  history  of  the  internal  improve- 
ment question  in  Wheeler's  "  Biographical  Diction- 
ary of  Congress." 

In  the  beginning  this  question  of  internal  im- 
provements was  as  much  a  Southern  as  a  Northern 
one.  In  later  periods  the  Democratic  party  of  the 
South  opposed  it,  except  where  members  had  works 
of  improvement  in  their  own  districts.  The  "Whig 
party  generally,  North  and  South,  were  for  the 
system,  and  the  Republicans,  in  1856,  endorsed  the 
River  and  Harbor  improvement  system. 

I  believe  the  power  to  improve  navigation  and 
natural  channels  to  exist,  but  not  to  construct  arti- 
ficial ones.  It  has  been  held  by  the  Supreme  Court 
that  the  Federal  Government,  under  the  Constitu- 
tion, by  virtue  of  the  power  to  regulate  commerce, 
has  jurisdiction  over  all  navigable  waters,  whether 
within  the  States,  or  between,  or  upon  the  high  seas. 
Hence  the  right  to  improve  that  navigation  does  not 
conflict  with  the  reserved  rights  of  the  States,  so 
long  as  it  is  confined  within  the  acknowledged  juris- 
diction of  the  United  States.  But  the  right  to  con- 
struct canals  and  railroads,  and  other  artificial  chan- 
nels of  commerce,  within  the  limits  of  the  several 
States,  presupposes  the  right  to  exercise  jurisdiction 
over  the  works  thus  constructed,  which  involves  an 


POWER   TO   IMPROVE   NAVIGATION.  4:5 

invasion  of  the  jurisdiction  and  reserved  rights  of 
the  States. 

The  Federal  Government  has  exercised  legisla- 
tive jurisdiction  over  the  navigable  waters  between 
and  within  the  States  in  a  variety  of  cases,  such  as 
the  passage  of  laws  regulating  steamboats  upon  the 
rivers  and  lakes,  as  well  as  upon  tidewater,  even  in- 
cluding ferry-boats,  and  providing  for  the  inspection 
of  their  boilers,  and  granting  certificates  by  Federal 
agents  of  their  capacity  and  soundness.  This  shows 
that  the  Legislative  Department  recognize  this  juris- 
diction, as  well  as  the  Judiciary. 

The  common  law  had  its  origin  in  England.  It 
grew  up  from  custom  and  immemorial  usage.  It 
was  a  principle  of  the  common  law  that  the  mari- 
time jurisdiction  extended  only  so  far  as  the.  tide 
ebbs  and  flows,  because  beyond  that,  they  in  England 
had  no  rivers  or  lakes  which  were  navigable,  and 
therefore  no  commerce.  The  principle  of  law,  thus, 
merely  conformed  to  the  fact.  With  us,  we  have 
lakes  and  rivers  navigable  beyond  the  ebb  and  flow 
of  the  tide,  and  while  we  have  adopted  the  common 
law,  the  Court  has  held  that  we  may  extend  the 
jurisdiction  and  legislate.  We  have  legislated  for 
rivers  and  lakes  beyond  the  ebb  and  flow  of  the  tide, 


46          ADMIRALTY  AND   MAEITIME   JURISDICTION. 

though  we  have  not  extended  admiralty  and  mari- 
time jurisdiction.  "We  thus  conform  to  the  reality, 
the  principle,  and  not  the  name  and  the  fact  of  the 
English  common  law. 


ARTICLE   SECOND. 

OF  THE  EXECUTIVE  POWER. 

THE  Convention  had  once  agreed  to  fix  the 
Presidential  term  of  office  for  seven  years,  and  in- 
eligible. It  was  also  proposed  for  life,  for  fifteen 
or  twenty  years,  and  afterwards  changed  to  four 
years,  and  not  made  ineligible.  General  "Washing- 
ton fixed  the  principle  of  not  more  than  two  terms, 
and  it  has  obtained  the  force  of  law. 

POWER    OF    THE    PRESIDENT    TO    MAKE    REMOVALS    AND 
TO   FILL   VACANCIES. 

Nothing  said  in  the  Constitution.  In  the  early 
years  of  the  Government  it  was  decided,  and  has 
since  been  held,  that  the  power  of  appointment  in- 
volves the  power  of  removal,  in  all  cases  where  the 
tenure  of  office  is  not  prescribed  in  the  Constitution. 
This  was  so  fixed  by  discussion  in  the  first  Congress 
of  1789,  1790,  or  1791,  in  establishing  some  of  the 


48         POWEK   OF   PRESIDENT  TO  FILL   VACANCIES. 

Departments  of  the  Government.  It  has  also  been 
held,  and  universally  acquiesced  in,  that  in  cases 
where  the  appointment  can  only  be  made  with  the 
advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate,  the  removal  can 
be  made  by  the  President  alone.  The  reason  of  this 
decision  is  not  apparent,  but  practice  and  universal 
acquiescence  have  given  it  the  force  of  law.  Under 
the  power  to  fill  vacancies  during  the  recess  of  the 
Senate,  it  has  been  held  that  the  President  cannot 
make  an  original  appointment  to  an  office  which  has 
been  created  by  law  but  never  filled.  The  commis- 
sion the  President  gives  during  the  recess  of  the 
Senate  does  not  expire  until  the  end  of  the  next 
session,  so  that  if  on  assembling  the  Senate  do  not 
confirm,  he  can  wait  until  the  end  of  their  session, 
and  then  reappoint ;  the  person  appointed  remain- 
ing in  the  mean  time  in  the  full  and  legal  exercise 
of  his  office.  This  course  was  pursued  by  General 
Jackson  when  the  Senate  refused  to  confirm  some 
of  his  appointments. 


ARTICLE  THIRD. 

OF  THE  JUDICIAL  POWER 

Section  2.  "  The  judicial  power  shall  extend  to  all  cases 
of  admiralty  and  maritime  jurisdiction." 

To  those  cases  only  which  were  then  known  to 
the  common  and  statute  law,  or  to  those  also  which 
should  be  subsequently  added  by  law  ? 

The  better  opinion  is,  that  Congress  may  define 
what  cases  come  within  admiralty  and  maritime 
jurisdiction,  but  under  this  clause  ought  to  confine 
themselves  to  such  cases  as  are  of  that  nature. 

u  To  controversies  hetween  citizens  of  different  States." 

The  Court  has  made  a  decision  which  it  will  be 
obliged  to  reverse,  namely,  that  a  citizen  of  a  Terri- 
tory is  not  a  citizen  of  a  State  within  the  meaning 
of  this  clause.  But  they  have  decided  that  within 
the  clause  providing  for  uniform  taxation  he  is  a 
citizen  of  a  State ;  that  he  is  for  taxation  but  not 


50  SLAVERY. 

for  judicial  purposes.     They  have  got  to  reverse  this 
decision. 

"  The  citizens  of  each  State  shall  be  entitled  to  all  privileges 
and  immunities  of  citizens  in  the  several  States." 

This  clause  is  confined  to  civil  rights,  and  does 
not  extend  to  political  privileges.  The  word 
"State"  includes  Territory. 

"  No  person  held  to  service  or  labor  in  one  State,  under  the 
laws  thereof,  escaping  into  another,  shall,  in  consequence  of 
any  law  or  regulation  therein,  be  discharged  from  such  service 
or  labor,  but  shall  be  delivered  up  on  claim  of  the  party  to 
whom  such  service  or  labor  may  be  due." 

This  clause  defines  who  may  be  slaves,  what  a 
slave  is,  where  he  may  exist  as  such,  and  by  what 
authority.  In  a  State  only  and  under  the  laws 
thereof,  and  not  under  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States.  By  virtue  of  State  authority,  not 
Federal.  ISTo  person  can  be  a  slave  under  any  other 
circumstances.  The  word  State  includes  Territory, 
and  every  other  political  community  recognized  by 
law,  and  existing  under  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States. 

"New  States  may  be  admitted  by  the  Congress  into  this 
Union." 

"  New  States  "  means  what  are  now  called  Ter- 


POWER   TO   ACQUIRE   TERRITORY.  51 

ritories.  According  to  present  phraseology  it  would 
read,  "Territories  may  be  admitted,"  in  the  same 
sense  in  which  Mr.  Jefferson  used  it  in  his  plan  of 
1784,  and  in  which  Mr.  Madison  used  it  in  the 
Convention,  in  his  proposition  of  powers  to  be 
added. 

The  Dred  Scott  case  decides  that  this  is  the  only 
clause  of  the  Constitution  which  authorizes  the  en- 
largement of  the  boundaries  of  the  United  States, 
and  the  acquisition  of  territory,  for  the  purpose  of 
making  new  States.  That  the  power  to  acquire, 
includes  the  power  to  apply  the  territory  to  the 
purposes  for  which  it  was  acquired,  and  to  institute 
governments  for  the  inhabitants  living  therein,  and 
that  these  powers  are  all  embraced  within  the  clause 
authorizing  Congress  to  admit  new  States.  That 
this  clause  authorizes  the  acquisition  of  territory  for 
the  purpose  of  making  new  States,  which  is  not  in 
a  condition  at  the  time  to  be  admitted  into  the 
Union,  but  may  be  retained  until  it  has  the  requi- 
site population,  and  is  in  a  condition  to  be  admitted. 

The  requisite  population  is  not  fixed  by  the 
Constitution.  The  rule  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  in  his  plan 
of  1784,  was,  that  the  population  of  the  new  State 
to  be  admitted  should  be  equal  to  that  of  the  small- 
est of  tie  original  thirteen.  The  rule  now  gener- 


52  ADMISSION   OF   NEW   STATES. 

ally  considered  correct  is,  that  it  should  contain  a 
population  equal  to  that  requisite  for  members  of 
Congress  under  the  existing  ratio. 

The  first  time  that  the  doctrine  was  advanced, 
that  the  right  to  acquire  territory  was  included 
within  the  power  to  admit  new  States,  was  in  a 
speech  made  by  me  on  the  annexation  of  Texas ;  and 
the  first  time, the  doctrine  was  advanced  that  the 
power  to  establish  territorial  governments  was  like- 
wise so  included,  was  in  a  report  made  by  me  as 
chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Territories,  in  Senate 
of  the  United  States,  on  the  12th  day  of  March,  1856. 
The  general  impression  had  previously  been  that  the 
power  to  institute  territorial  governments  was  in- 
cluded within  the  power  "  to  dispose  of  and  make 
all  needful  rules  and  regulations  respecting  the  ter- 
ritory or  other  property  belonging  to  the  United 
States,"  which  has  been  exploded  by  the  Supreme 
Court  in  the  Dred  Scott  case,  and  the  power  traced 
to  the  provision  to  admit  new  States.  The  Supreme 
Court  had  previously  recognized,  or  rather  inti- 
mated, but  not  expressly  decided,  the  latter  princi- 
ple ;  and  some  laughed  at  my  report  of  1856. 

"  The  Congress  shall  have  power  to  dispose  of  and  make 
all  needful  rules  and  regulations  respecting  the  territory  or 
other  property  belonging  to  the  United  States ;  and  nothing  in 


POWER   TO   DISPOSE   OF   PUBLIC   PROPERTY.         53 

this  Constitution  shall  be  so  construed  as  to  prejudice  any 
claims  of  the  United  States,  or  of  any  particular  State." 

This  clause  relates  to  property,  and  not  to  per- 
sons or  communities.  Its  original  form,  as  intro- 
duced by  Mr.  Madison  in  the  Convention,  was, 
"  Congress  shall  have  power  to  dispose  of  the  waste 
and  unappropriated  lands  of  the  United  States." 
It  was  referred,  in  this  form,  to  the  committee  of 
detail,  to  be  revised  and  incorporated  into  the  Con- 
stitution. The  committee  of  detail  changed  "  lands  " 
into  "  territory,1'  and  added  "  other  property,"  so 
that  Congress  should  have  the  same  power  to  dis- 
pose of  the  old  ships,  munitions  of  war,  and  every 
other  description  of  property  belonging  to  the 
United  States,  which  was  no  longer  needed  for 
public  use.  The  committee  also  added  the  right  to 
make  "  needful  rules  and  regulations,"  in  order  that 
Congress  might  protect  and  regulate  all  such  prop- 
erty until  it  was  disposed  of.  The  history  of  this 
power  clearly  shows  that  it  relates  to  property,  and 
not  to  persons  or  communities. 

In  the  Dred  Scott  case,  the  Supreme  Court  say 
that  this  clause  was  confined  in  its  operation  to  the 
territory  which  the  United  States  then  owned  at  the 
time  of  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  and  has  no 
force  in  Florida,  the  Louisiana  purchase,  or  the  Mexi- 


54         POWER  TO   DISPOSE   OF   PUBLIC   PROPERTY. 

can  or  any  other  territory  subsequently  acquired. 
This  is  clearly  an  error,  for  unless  the  clause  is  in 
force  in  all  the  new  Territories  and  States  acquired 
since  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  Congress 
would  have  no  power  to  provide  for  the  surveys  and 
sales  of  the  public  lands,  or  for  the  appointment  of 
land  offices,  and  the  issuing  of  land  patents,  nor 
could  Congress  authorize  the  sale  of  military  sites 
and  other  property  not  needed  for  public  uses. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  ACQUISITIONS  OF  TER- 
RITORY BY  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

THE   LOUISIANA  PUECHASE. 

THE  first  foreign  territory  acquired  by  the 
United  States  is  known  as  the  Louisiana  Purchase. 
It  was  purchased  of  France  in  1803,  and  comprises 
the  whole  country  west  of  the  Mississippi,  as  far  as 
the  Rocky  Mountains,  and,  taken  in  connection  with 
the  explorations  of  Lewis  and  Clarke,  was  one  of 
the  sources  of  our  claim  to  Oregon. 

When  Mr.  Jefferson  instructed  our  ministers, 
Monroe  and  Pinckney,  to  acquire  from  Napoleon, 
then  First  Consul,  a  tract  of  country  near  the 
mouth  of  the  Mississippi  River,  they  were  only 
authorized  to  purchase  that  portion  lying  east  of 
the  Mississippi  River,  and  known  as  the  Island  of 
New  Orleans,  being  bounded  by  the  Gulf  of  Mexico, 
the  Mississippi,  the  Iberville  River,  or  Pass  Man- 


56  THE   LOUISIANA   PURCHASE. 

chac,  as  now  called,  and  Lakes  Ponchartrain  and 
Borgne. 

When  our  ministers  made  the  proposition  to 
Napoleon,  he  refused  to  sell  the  Island  of  New  Or- 
leans by  itself,  on  any  terms,  but  told  them  that  they 
could  have  the  whole  of  the  province  of  Louisiana. 
They  replied  that  their  instructions  limited  them  to 
the  country  east  of  the  Mississippi,  as  the  United 
States  only  desired  the  free  navigation  of  that  river, 
and  possession  of  one  of  its  banks,  in  order  to  secure 
that  right.  Napoleon  persisted  in  his  refusal  to  sell 
a  part,  but  insisted  upon  their  taking  the  whole,  and 
it  is  said  that  he  subsequently  gave  as  a  reason,  that 
England  and  the  other  European  powers  were  form- 
ing a  new  combination  against  him,  and  that  the 
British  navy  were  about  to  sail  against  Louisiana, 
at  a  time  when  he  had  no  means  to  prevent  its  cap- 
ture ;  that  he  was  reduced  to  the  alternative  of  per- 
mitting that  vast  province  to  be  captured  by  his 
most  formidable  enemy,  or  to  transfer  it  to  the 
United  States  upon  whatever  terms  they  would  ac- 
cept it,  adding,  whatever  nation  held  the  Yalley  of 
the  Mississippi,  would  eventually  be  the  most  power- 
ful on  earth,  and  that,  consequently,  he  preferred 
that  a  friendly  nation  should  possess  it,  instead  of 
the  national,  implacable  enemy  of  France. 


THE   LOUISIANA   PURCHASE.  57 

Monroe  and  Pinckney  took  the  responsibility  of 
making  the  treaty  for  the  whole  country,  without 
authority  from  the  Government;  and  when  it  was 
presented  to  Mr.  Jefferson,  he  hesitated  in  accept- 
ing it,  upon  the  ground  that  there  was  no  authority 
in  the  Constitution  for  the  acquisition  of  foreign 
territory ;  and  while  he  was  willing  to  take  the  re- 
sponsibility of  acquiring  a  small  district,  which  was 
necessary  for  the  common  defence,  as  well  as  the 
navigation  of  the  Mississippi,  which  was  the  channel 
of  commerce  for  at  least  one-half  of  the  Republic,  he 
doubted  whether  he  ought  to  accept  a  grant  of  such 
gigantic  proportions,  which,  when  subdivided  and 
formed  into  States,  would  change  the  character  of 
the  entire  Confederacy.  When  he  determined  to 
accept  the  provisions  of  the  treaty,  he  still  hesitated 
whether  he  should  not  first  submit  the  question  to 
the  several  States,  in  the  form  of  a  proposition  to 
amend  the  Constitution  for  that  purpose.  At  last  he 
gave  his  own  consent  to  accept  the  treaty,  and  send 
it  to  the  Senate  for  ratification. 

This  acquisition  of  territory  became  a  partisan 
issue  between  the  Federal  and  Republican  parties 
of  that  day — the  former  opposing,  and  the  latter 
sustaining.  The  Senate  ratified  the  treaty  by  the 

constitutional  majority,  and  Congress  immediately 
3* 


58  THE   LOUISIANA  PURCHASE. 

passed  a  law  authorizing  the  President  to  accept 
the  possession  of  the  territory,  and  to  preserve  order 
therein,  and  protect  the  inhabitants  in  their  rights 
of  person,  property,  and  religion,  until  a  regular  ter- 
ritorial government  should  be  established. 

In  1805  so  much  of  the  Louisiana  purchase  as 
is  embraced  within  the  present  State  of  Louisiana, 
was  organized  into  a  Territory,  under  the  title  and 
style  of  the  Territory  of  Orleans,  and  the  provisions 
of  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  for  the  government  of  the 
territory  northwest  of  the  Ohio  Kiver,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  the  Sixth  Article,  prohibiting  slavery, 
were  adopted  as  the  basis  of  that  government. 
The  residue  of  the  purchase,  including  the  present 
States  of  Arkansas,  Missouri,  Iowa,  the  greater  part 
of  Minnesota,  the  Territories  of  Kansas  and  Nebraska, 
and  what  is  known  as  the  Dakota  country,  was 
formed  into  a  separate  Territory,  under  the  name 
4of  the  Territory  of  Louisiana.  In  1812  the  Terri- 
tory of  Orleans  was  admitted  into  the  Union,  under 
the  name  of  the  State  of  Louisiana,  and  the  name 
of  the  Territory  of  Louisiana  was  changed  to  that 
of  Missouri. 


FLORIDA,  ALABAMA,  MISSISSIPPI,  AND   LOUISIANA.    59 


ACQUISITION  OF  FLORIDA  AND  PARTS  OF  ALABAMA,  MIS- 
SISSIPPI, AND  LOUISIANA. 

Ill  1811  Congress  in  secret  session  passed  an  act, 
in  vague  and  doubtful  terms,  to  authorize  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States,  in  certain  contingencies, 
to  take  possession  of  a  district  of  country  south  of 
the  thirty-first  parallel  of  latitude,  and  on  the  east 
of  the  Mississippi  and  Iberville  Rivers,  having  refer- 
ence to  that  portion  of  Alabama  and  Mississippi 
which  fronts  on  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  so  much  of 
the  State  of  Louisiana  (I  speak  of  the  present  State) 
as  was  not  included  within  the' Louisiana  purchase, 
and  which  country  was  at  the  time  not  in  the  actual 
possession  of  any  civilized  power,  although  claimed 
by  Spain  as  part  of  the  Floridas,  and  upon  which 
several  lawless  communities  were  residing;  some 
deriving  their  titles  from  Spanish,  and  others  from 
English  grants,  made  while  England  was  in  tempo- 
rary occupation  of  Florida,  while  the  greater  portion 
of  them  held  by  no  other  title  than  actual  posses- 
sion. 

Under  this  act  Mr.  Madison  fitted  out  an  expe- 
dition on  the  Ohio  Eiver,  which  floated  down,  the 
Mississippi,  and  took  possession  of  the  country,  part 
of  which  was  subsequently  annexed  to  the  State  of 


60    OREGON,  TEXAS,  CALIFORNIA,  AND  NEW  MEXICO. 

Louisiana,  and  the  residue  was  incorporated  into  the 
States  of  Mississippi  and  Alabama,  by  which  those 
States  were  extended  to  the  Gulf. 

FLORIDA,  OREGON,  AND  TEXAS,  AND  THE  MEXICAN  WAR, 
CALIFORNIA,  AND  NEW  MEXICO. 

Iii  1819  a  treaty  was  made  between  the  United 
States  and  Spain  for  the  acquisition  of  the  Floridas, 
which  was  ratified  in  this  country  the  same  year, 
and  rejected  by  Spain,  but  was  subsequently  recon- 
sidered and  ratified  by  Spain  in  1821,  by  which  our 
title  to  Florida  takes  effect  from  the  date  of  the 
treaty  in  1819.  Florida  was  immediately  organized 
into  a  Territory,  and  governed  herself  in  that  condi- 
tion until  1838,  when  she  called  a  convention,  framed 
a  Constitution,  and  applied  for  admission  into  the 
Union.  Congress  took  no  notice  of  this  application, 
leaving  Florida  under  the  territorial  government 
until  1845,  when  the  State  was  admitted  under  the 
Constitution  adopted  in  1838. 

In  the  treaty  of  1819,  for  the  acquisition  of 
Florida,  was  a  provision  establishing  and  defining 
the  boundaries  between  the  Spanish  Mexican  prov- 
inces and  the  United  States,  by  a  line  up  the  Sabine 
River;  thence  due  north  to  the  Red  River;  thence 
up  the  Red  River  to  a  point  where  the  one  hundredth 


KE-ANNEXATION   OF   TEXAS.  61 

degree  of  longitude,  west  from  Greenwich,  crossed 
the  same ;  thence  due  north  on  said  meridian  to  the 
Arkansas  River;  thence  up  the  Arkansas  to  its 
source ;  thence  due  north  to  the  forty-second  parallel 
of  latitude ;  thence  due  west  on  said  parallel  to  the 
Pacific  Ocean  or  South  Sea — thus  ceding  to  Spain, 
in  part  payment  for  Florida,  the  claim  of  the  United 
States,  which  had  been  previously  supposed  to  be 
valid,  to  the  country  between  the  Sabine  and  Rio 
Grande,  and  which  was  afterwards  formed  into  the 
Republic  of  Texas. 

By  the  resolutions  of  the  Democratic  Kational 
Convention  at  Baltimore  in  1844,  when  Mr.  Polk 
was  nominated  for  the  Presidency,  the  Democratic 
party  declared  the  r^-annexation  of  Texas,  and  the 
re-occupation  of  Oregon,  to  be  objects  which  they 
intended  to  accomplish  in  the  event  of  success. 
Much  comment  and  ridicule  has  been  indulged  in, 
because  of  the  EE-annexation  and  KE-occupation. 
By  the  ^-annexation  of  Texas,  reference  was  had  to 
the  fact  that  it  was  originally  embraced  within  the 
French  province  of  Louisiana,  and  consequently  be- 
came the  property  of  the  United  States,  by  virtue 
of  the  treaty  of  1803,  by  which  that  province  was 
acquired,  and  was  subsequently  ceded  to  Spain  by 
the  Florida  treaty  of  1819.  By  the  ^-occupation 


62  RE-OCCUPATION   OF   OREGON. 

of  Oregon,  reference  was  had  to  the  first  discovery 
and  navigation  of  the  Columbia  Kiver,  in  or  about 
the  year  1789,  by  Captain  Grey,  of  Boston,  with  his 
ship  Columbia,  and  to  the  exploration  of  Lewis  and 
Clarke  in  the  year  1805,  and  to  the  settlements  and 
establishments  of  John  Jacob  Astor  and  his  asso- 
ciates, under  the  protection  and  authority  of  the 
United  States,  in  the  years  1809,  1810,  1811,  1812, 
and  1813. 

During  the  war  of  1812,  a  British  ship-of-war 
entered  the  Columbia  Eiver  and  captured  Astoria, 
hauled  down  the  American  flag,  raised  the  British, 
and  named  the  post  Fort  George,  and  held  exclu- 
sive possession  of  the  country  until  after  the  treaty 
of  peace. 

In  1818  a  treaty  was  formed  between  the 
United  States  and  Great  Britain  in  respect  to 
Oregon,  by  which  it  was  agreed  that  the  disputed 
title  and  boundary  to  the  country  should  remain  in 
abeyance,  and  that  neither  party  would  make  any 
permanent  settlements  or  establishments  within  the 
same  during  the  period  of  the  treaty,  which  was  for 
twenty  years,  and  until  abolished. 

Notwithstanding  the  stipulati6ns  of  this  treaty, 
the  Hudson  Bay  Company  kept  up  their  settlements 
throughout  the  valley  of  the  Columbia,  and  estab- 


OREGON    TREATY   OF   1818.  63 

listed  new  ones,  under  the  protection  of  British 
laws,  and,  in  fact,  held  the  actual  occupation  of  the 
country,  with  the  exception  of  the  Wilharnette  Yalley, 
in  which  American  settlements  commenced  forming 
about  1832  or  1833,  and  gradually  increased  from 
that  period.  The  American  Government  did  not 
feel  itself  at  liberty,  under  the  existing  stipulations 
of  the  treaty,  to  extend  the  protection  of  our  laws 
over  the  American  settlements ;  and  the  American 
citizens  finding  themselves  without  government  or 
protection,  established  a  provisional  government  for 
themselves,  upon  the  principle  of  popular  sover- 
eigntyr,  composed  of  executive,  legislative,  and  judi- 
cial departments,  after  the  model  of  our  State 
governments.  The  inhabitants  lived  peaceably  and 
prosperously  under  this  provisional  government, 
maintaining  order  and  preserving  friendly  relations 
with  the  Indians,  until  the  month  of  August,  1848, 
when  Congress  organized  the  territorial  government 
of  Oregon,  notice  having  been  previously  given  to 
Great  Britain  for  the  termination  of  the  treaty  of 
joint  occupation,  as  it  was  usually  called,  but  more 
properly  of  ^OTi-occupation ;  and  a  treaty  of  settle- 
ment and  boundaries  having  been  made  in  1846 
between  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States,  by 
which  the  forty-ninth  parallel  of  latitude  was  made 


64:  OEEGON   AND   THE   MEXICAN  WAR. 

the  permanent  boundary  between  the  two  countries, 
Great  Britain  ceding  all  claims  south,  and  the  United 
States  all  claims  north  of  that  line. 

This  was  an  exciting  controversy  in  our  domestic 
politics.  Polk  had  been  pledged  to  fifty-four,  forty. 
I  proposed  to  institute  a  territorial  government  for 
Oregon  without  defining  the  boundaries  or  accept- 
ing any  line;  and  as  our  settlements  were  agri- 
cultural, and  the  British  were  fur-traders,  we  would 
have  squatted  them  out.  Vancouver's  Island,  with 
excellent  harbors,  well  timbered,  good  soil  and  cli- 
mate, abounding  in  coal,  and  therefore  an  excellent 
coal  depot  for  us  on  the  Pacific,  and  possessing  an 
area  as  large  as  that  of  Great  Britain,  was.  given  up 
by  us.  Polk,  to  avoid  the  ruin  of  the  Democratic 
party,  precipitated  the  country  into  the  Mexican 
war,  thus  avoiding  and  distracting  attention.  The 
British  have  organized  that  island,  and  the  shores 
opposite,  into  British  Columbia,  and  the  gold  dis- 
covered there  recently  lies  ten  miles  on  the  other 
side  of  the  line,  and  in  the  British  territory.  I  had 
prepared  a  bill,  according  to  my  plan,  read  it  to  Mr. 
Polk,  and  he  had  assented  to  it,  and  it  was  about  to 
pass  the  Senate,  when  he  and  his  whole  cabinet  came 
down,  and  it  was  barely  defeated  on  the  ground  that 
it  would  bring  on  a  war  with  Great  Britain. 


OREGON   ADMITTED   INTO   THE   UNTOTST.  65 

In  1852  Oregon  Territory  was  divided  by  a  line 
commencing  in  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  running  up 
the  main  channel  of  the  Columbia  River  to  a  point 
where  the  forty-sixth  parallel  of  north  latitude 
crossed  the  same,  above  the  Cascades ;  thence  due 
east  on  said  parallel  to  the  summit  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains ;  and  all  between  that  line  and  the  British 
possessions  was  organized  into  a  territory  under  the 
name  of  Washington  Territory.  In  185T  and  1858 
the  people  of  Oregon  Territory  called  a  convention, 
under  a  law  of  their  Legislature,  and  formed  a  State 
government,  embracing  the  west  half  of  Oregon 
Territory,  and  applied  for  admission  into  the  Union, 
and  were  admitted  at  the  session  of  Congress  in 
1859 ;  and  at  the  same  time  the  east  half  was  added, 
and  incorporated  within  the  Territory  of  Washing- 
ton, until  Congress  should  otherwise  provide. 

After  the  election  of  Mr.  Polk,  in  1844,  and  be- 
fore his  inauguration  as  President,  Congress  passed 
a  joint  resolution,  making  propositions  to  the  Re- 
public of  Texas  for  her  annexation  to  the  United 
States,  with  the  condition  that  she  should  be  admit- 
ted into  the  Union  as  one  State,  with  the  privilege 
of  forming  not  exceeding  four  other  States,  making 
five  in  all,  out  of  the  said  State  of  Texa's ;  and  the 
further  condition  that  such  of  these  States  as  should 


66  ANNEXATION   OF   TEXAS. 

be  situated  south  of  the  line  of  thirty-six  degrees 
thirty  minutes,  known  as  the  Missouri  Compromise 
line,  should  be  admitted  into  the  Union  with  or 
without  slavery,  as  each  State  should  determine  for 
itself;  and  the  State  or  States  which  should  be  formed 
out  of  the  State  of  Texas,  north  of  said  line,  should 
forever  prohibit  slavery.  Texas  agreed  to  these 
propositions,  and  became  annexed  to  the  United 
States  in  1845 ;  and  in  December  of  that  year  a  law 
was  passed,  declaring  the  State  of  Texas  to  be  one 
of  the  States  of  the  Union,  on  an  equal  footing  with 
the  original  States. 

The  Republic  of  Mexico,  still  claiming  Texas  as 
a  portion  of  that  Republic,  to  which  she  had  never 
relinquished  her  title,  considered  -and  treated  the 
act  of  the  United  States,  in  annexing  and  taking 
possession  of  Texas,  as  an  act  of  war  against  that 
Republic,  and  accordingly  marched  her  armies 
across  the  Rio  Grande,  within  the  limits  of  Texas, 
for  the  purpose  of  reconquering  and  occupying  the 
country.  In  anticipation  of  this  movement  on  the 
part  of  Mexico,  President  Polk  had  ordered  a  de- 
tachment of  the  American  army,  under  the  com- 
mand of  General  Taylor,  into  the  western  portion 
of  Texas.  General  Taylor  landed  and  established 
his  headquarters  at  Corpus  Christi,  near  the  mouth 


MEXICAN   WAR.  67 

of  the  fences  River,  which  was  by  some  considered 
the  western  boundary  of  Texas,  instead  of  the  Rio 
Grande.  After  remaining  some  time  (several  months) 
at  Corpus  Christi,  General  Taylor  took  up  his  line 
of  march  for  the  Rio  Grande,  and  established  his 
headquarters  at  Point  Isabel,  a  few  miles  from  that 
river. 

On  the  8th  of  May,  1846,  the  two  armies  came 
in  collision,  the  attack  being  made  by  the  Mexicans 
at  Palo  Alto,  where  they  were  defeated  and  routed ; 
and  the  next  day,  May  9th,  another  battle  was  fought 
and  another  victory  won  at  Resaca  de  la  Palnia,  still 
nearer  to  the  Rio  Grande.  On  the  13th  of  May,  after 
these  battles  had  been  fought,  but  before  the  fact 
was  known  at  "Washington — although  information 
had  been  received  that  the  Mexicans  had  crossed  the 
Rio  Grande,  and  killed  several  Americans,  who  were 
detached  from  the  main  army  as  scouting  parties, 
and  were  preparing  with  superior  force  to  attack 
the  American  army — Congress  passed  a  law  with  a 
preamble,  reciting,  "  whereas  war  exists  by  the  acts 
of  Mexico,"  proceeded  to  appropriate  men  and 
money  for  the  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war. 

The  war  was  sustained  by  the  Democratic  party 
with  almost  entire  unanimity,  and  was  opposed  bit- 
terly by  a  large  portion  of  the  Whigs,  particularly 


68   ACQUISITION   OF  CALIFORNIA  AND   NEW  MEXICO. 

that  section   of  the  party  which   cherished   anti- 
slavery  proclivities. 

By  the  treaty  of  peace,  February  2d,  1848,  we 
acquired  the  Mexican  provinces  of  New  Mexico  and 
California,  and  paid  for  them  $15,000,000,  three  and 
a  quarter  of  which  were  to  be  applied  by  this  Gov- 
ernment to  the  payment  of  such  claims  as  should  be 
adjudged  by  a  joint  commission,  and  which  citizens 
of  the  United  States  might  have  against  the  Re- 
public of  Mexico  for  previous  wrongs.  By  this 
treaty  a  new  boundary  was  fixed  between  the 
United  States  and  Mexico,  beginning  at  a  point 
north  of  the  Rio  Grande  River,  instead  of  the  Sa- 
bine,  as  had  been  previously  fixed,  and  running  up 
the  Rio  Grande  to  El  Paso,  which  was  near  the 
thirty-second  parallel  of  latitude,  thence  west  to  the 
head  of  the  Gila  River,  thence  down  the  Gila  to  its 
junction  with  the  Colorado,  thence  in  a  direct  line 
to  the  Pacific,  to  a  point  two  or  three  leagues  south 
of  San  Diego  ;  by  which  boundary  Mexico  surren- 
dered her  claim  to  the  whole  of  Texas,  and  ten  de- 
grees of  latitude,  including  California  and  New 
Mexico. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  COMPROMISE  OF  1820, 
OR  THE  MISSOURI  COMPROMISE. 

THE  ADMISSION  OF  THE    STATE   INTO   THE  UNION. 

IN  1819  the  people  of  the  Territory  of  Missouri 
made  application  to  Congress  for  permission  to  form 
a  State  government,  preparatory  to  admission  into 
the  Union,  with  boundaries  substantially  the  same 
as  those  defining  the  present  State  of  Missouri,  the 
variation  consisting  in  the  omission  to  include 
within  the  proposed  State  the  district  since  known 
as  the  Platte  country,  which  lay  on  the  north- 
east side  of  the  Missouri  River  and  west  of  the 
limits  of  the  State,  and  which,  by  an  act  of  Con- 
gress in  1835  or  1836,  was  annexed  and  included 
within  the  limits  of  the  State,  and  now  comprises 
seven  of  its  wealthiest  counties.  It  was  proposed 
at  the  same  time  that  Congress  should  grant  au- 
thority to  the  people  of  Missouri  to  form  a  State 
government ;  also  to  organize  the  country  between 


70  MISSOURI  COMPROMISE. 

the  State  of  Louisiana  and  the  proposed  State 
of  Missouri  into  the  Territory  of  Arkansas.  To 
each  of  these  bills  an  amendment  was  proposed, 
that  the  said  State  might  be  admitted  and  the  terri- 
tory organized,  on  the  express  condition  that  neither 
slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude  should  ever  exist 
therein,  except  for  crime.  The  proposition  to  pro- 
hibit slavery  was  not  confined  to  the  territory  while 
it  should  remain  in  that  condition,"  but  provided 
that  there  should  be  a  clause  in  the  Constitution  of 
the  State  of  Missouri  expressly  prohibiting  slavery, 
as  a  condition  of  her  admission. 

This  proposition  was  sternly  resisted  by  the 
entire  South,  and  by  a  majority  of  the  Republican 
or  Democratic  party  throughout  the  country ;  but 
,still  only  a  few  members  from  the  North  could  be 
found  who  were  willing  to  risk  their  popularity  at 
home  by  voting  against  the  Missouri  restriction.  A 
majority  of  the  House  of  Representatives  adopted 
the  restriction,  which  the  Senate  rejected,  and  thus 
the  bill  for  the  formation  of  a  State  government  for 
Missouri,  and  the  organization  of  the  Territory  of 
Arkansas,  was  defeated  at  that  session. 

At  the  next  session  the  controversy  was  renewed 
with  increased  excitement  and  great  bitterness  ;  the 
House  of  Representatives  insisting  upon  the  restric- 


MISSOUKI   COMPROMISE.  71 

tion,  and  the  Senate  rejecting  the  same.  After  sev- 
eral disagreements  between  the  House  and  the  Sen- 
ate on  this  point,  a  compromise  was  proposed  by 
Jesse  B.  Thomas,  a  Senator  from  the  State  of 
Illinois,  by  which  it  was  provided  that  the  people 
of  Missouri  might  proceed  to  form  their  Constitu- 
tion and  State  government  preparatory  to  their  ad- 
mission into  the  Union  on  an  equal  footing  with  the 
original  States,  and  that  slavery  should  be  forever 
prohibited  in  so  much  of  the  Louisiana  purchase 
as  was  situated  north  of  the  parallel  of  thirty- 
six  degrees  thirty  minutes,  and  not  included  within 
the  limits  of  the  proposed  State.  In  this  form  the 
bill  passed,  and  became  a  law  on  the  6th  of  March, 
1820.  In  the  month  of  June  of  that  year,  the  peo- 
ple of  Missouri  assembled  in  convention  and  framed 
a  Constitution  and  State  government,  recognizing 
and  protecting  African  slaves,  and,  at  the  opening 
of  the  session  in  December  of  that  year,  presented 
the  same  to  Congress,  for  acceptance  and  admission 
into  the  Union.  The  Senate  passed  the  bill  for  the 
admission  of  the  State,  to  which  the  House  added 
an  amendment,  providing  a  fundamental  condition 
to  be  first  performed,  that  the  State  of  Missouri 
should  change  her  Constitution,  and  insert  a  clause 
therein  prohibiting  slavery.  The  Senate  rejected 


7z  MISSOURI   COMPROMISE. 

the  amendment,  the  House  insisted  upon  it,  and 
thus  the  question  of  admission,  for  the  time,  fell  by 
the  disagreement  of  the  two  houses. 

By  this  time  the  excitement  and  sectional  strife 
had  become  so  intense  that  the  country  became 
alarmed  for  the  consequences.  At  this  stage  of  the 
proceedings,  Mr.  Clay,  of  Kentucky,  proposed  the 
appointment  of  a  joint  committee  of  the  two  houses, 
with  the  view  to  some  fair  and  just  compromise  of 
their  differences.  A  committee  was  appointed,  and, 
after  free  conference,  agreed  upon  a  compromise, 
which  provided,  in  substance,  that  the  State  of  Mis- 
souri should  be,  and  is  hereby,  admitted  into  the 
Union  on  the  fundamental  condition  that  the  said 
State  should  never  construe  or  execute  certain  pro- 
visions of  the  Constitution  of  Missouri  (naming  them), 
which  related  to  the  rights  of  free  negroes,  in  such 
a  manner  as  to  violate  the  provisions  of  the  Consti- 
tution of  the  United  States  ! ! !  and  that  so  soon  as 
the  State  of  Missouri  should  faithfully  comply  with 
the  aforesaid  fundamental  condition,  and  should 
present  authentic  and  -satisfactory  evidence  thereof 
to  the  President  of  the  United  States,  it  should  be 
his  duty  to  issue  his  proclamation,  declaring  said 
State  of  Missouri  to  be  admitted  into  the  Union  on 
an  equal  footing  with  the  original  States. 


MISSOURI   COMPROMISE.  73 

The  joint  committee  reported  the  compromise 
to  their  respective  houses.  It  was  concurred  in, 
and  became  a  law  on  the  2d  day  of  March,  1821. 

In  pursuance  of  this  joint  resolution  of  com- 
promise, the  Legislature  of  Missouri  assembled  in 
the  mouth  of  June  1821,  and  proceeded  to  consider 
the  terms  and  conditions  upon  which  Congress  pro- 
posed to  admit  them  into  the  Union.  After  mature 
deliberation  a  public  and  irrevocable  act  was  pro- 
posed by  the  late  Senator  Geyer  of  Missouri,  and 
adopted  by  the  Legislature  in  due  form,  by  which, 
after  setting  out  the  terms  of  the  joint  resolution 
of  Congress,  it  is  declared,  that  whereas  Congress 
has  prescribed  these  terms  as  the  only  condition  on 
which  the  State  of  Missouri  can  be  admitted  into 
the  Union  on  an  equal  footing  with  the  original 
States,  and  whereas  the  said  terms  are  in  palpable 
violation  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
and  grossly  insulting  to  the  people  of  the  State,  and 
such  as  Congress  had  no  right  to  pass,  and  as  the 
people  of  the  State  ought  not  to  accede  to ;  and 
whereas  the  people  of  Missouri  do  not  intend  to  re- 
spect and  be  bound  by  the  said  conditions,  or  to  ac- 
knowledge the  right  of  Congress  to  impose  them, 
but  inasmuch  as  we  cannot  obtain  our  constitutional 
rights  in  any  other  mode  than  by  giving  our  assent 
4 


74:  MISSOURI   COMPROMISE. 

to  the  same,  with  the  protest  that  we  shall  not 
respect  them — therefore  be  it  known,  that  we,  the 
people  of  Missouri,  do  declare  by  this  fundamental 
and  irrevocable  act,  etc.,  etc. ! ! !  This  act  of  Mis- 
souri, duly  authenticated,  was  presented  to  Presi- 
dent Monroe  as  the  basis  for  his  proclamation.  On 
the  10th  of  August,  1821,  he  issued  his  procla- 
mation, declaring,  that  whereas  Congress  had  passed 
such  a  resolution  admitting  Missouri,  on  a  funda- 
mental condition,  and  whereas  Missouri  liad  com- 
plied, therefore  I,  James  Monroe,  do  declare  and 
admit  the  State  as  one  of  the  States  of  the  Union. 

Remark,  that  Monroe  did  not  publish  the  act  of 
the  Missouri  Legislature  ! ! 

It  was  all  a  burlesque !  Clay's  account  of  it 
was  that  they  met  one  Sunday,  took  some  brandy, 
threw  dust  in  their  eyes,  arrd  gave  them  an  excuse 
to  ~back  down.  Thus  vanishes  Clay's  Compromise 
of  1820.  He  declared  that  he  would  not  vote  for 
the  restriction  as  to  slavery,  with  which  he  had 
nothing  to  do.  It  came  from  Illinois,  and  Illinois 
repealed  it ! 


"  THE  WILMOT  PROVISO  AKD  THE  COM- 
PROMISE OF  1850." 

PENDING  the  war,  when,  in  August,  1846,  the 
President  asked  for  additional  appropriations,  and 
for  $2,000,000  to  be  used  in  negotiating  a  treaty  of 
peace,  and  as  the  first  instalments  of  any  sums  that 
we  might  give  for  the  cession  of  territory,  Mr. 
Wilmot,  of  Pennsylvania,  offered  a  proviso  to  the 
bill  appropriating  $2,000,000,  to  the  effect  that  any 
treaty  or  compact  by  which  territory  should  be  ac- 
quired, should  contain  a  stipulation  that  neither 
slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude  should  ever  exist 
in  the  territory  thus  to  be  ceded.  This  was  the 
original  of  what  is  known  as  the  Wilmot  Proviso. 

The  proviso  was  adopted  in  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives as  an  amendment  to  the  bill ;  and,  as 
thus  amended,  it  was  sent  for  concurrence  to  the 
Senate,  where  it  was  rejected  because  of  the  pro- 
viso, and  the  appropriation  was  defeated. 


T6  THE   WILMOT  PROVISO. 

The  war  still  went  on,  and  at  the  next  session 
the  President  recommended  Congress  to  appro- 
priate $3,000,000  for  the  purpose  of  enabling  him 
to  make  peace  and  to  procure  the  cession  of  terri- 
tory. The  House  of  Representatives  passed  a  bill 
appropriating  $3,000,000,  with  the  "Wilmot  Proviso 
attached,  and  sent  it  to  the  Senate,  where,  by  a  pro- 
tracted discussion  on  the  last  day  of  the  short  ses- 
sion, the  bill  failed  for  the  want  of  time,  and  in  con- 
sequence of  the  opposition  of  the  Senate  to  the 
proviso. 

After  peace  was  made,  and  the  additional  terri- 
tory acquired,  the  slavery  question  again  became  a 
disturbing  element  in  our  politics.  The  large  ma- 
jority of  the  Northern  States  demanded  that  the 
Wilmot  Proviso  should  be  attached  to  any  bill  for 
the  organization  of  territorial  governments,  while 
the  entire  South,  with  many  Northern  Democrats, 
resisted  this  claim.  The  two  houses  of  Congress 
being  unable  to  agree  on  this  question,  it  became 
an  issue  in  the  Presidential  election  of  1848,  and 
secured  the  election  of  General  Taylor,  the  Whig 
candidate,  over  General  Cass,  the  Democratic  can- 
didate, by  dividing  the  Democratic  party  in  the 
Northern  States,  and  thus  enabling  the  Whigs  to 
succeed — Martin  Yan  Buren,  Democrat,  and  C.  F. 


WILMOT   PROVISO — NON-INTEKVENTION.  77 

Adams,  Whig,  having  accepted  the  nomination  from 
a  Freesoil  Convention  held  at  Buffalo  in  1848,  and 
running  upon  a  platform  pledging  its  candidates  and 
supporters  to  prohibit  slavery,  by  an  act  of  Con- 
gress, in  all  the  Territories  of  the  United  States,  and 
in  the  dockyards,  forts,  and  arsenals,  and  wherever 
else  Congress  had  exclusive  jurisdiction.  Cass  ran 
upon  the  issue  of  non-intervention  by  Congress  with 
slavery  in  the  Territories,  as  explained  in  his  cele- 
brated letter  to  A.  O.  P.  Nicholson,  of  Tennessee, 
and  known  as  the  Nicholson  Letter.  The  Whig  Na- 
tional Convention,  which  nominated  General  Taylor, 
made  no  platform,  leaving  the  party  free  to  take 
such  course  as  they  should  see  proper  in  their  sev- 
eral State  conventions,  with  the  understanding,  and 
which  was  in  fact  the  case,  that  in  the  free  States 
they  would  pledge  their  party  to  the  Wilmot  Pro- 
viso, and  in  the  slaveholding  they  would  repudiate 
it,  and  deny  that  their  candidate  was  committed  to 
it,  and  that  he,  meanwhile,  should  express  no  opinion 
upon  the  subject. 

General  Taylor  was  elected  President,  but  his 
election,  instead  of  quieting  the  agitation  upon  the 
slavery  question,  aggravated  the  evil,  and  increased 
the  excitement.  Nearly  all  the  Northern  States 
then,  by  resolutions  in  their  several  Legislatures, 


78  SLAVERY   IN   THE   TERRITORIES. 

demanded  the  application  of  the  Wilmot  Proviso 
to  all  the  Territories ;  while  the  Southern  States,  by 
the  resolutions  of  their  Legislatures,  denounced  the 
measure  as  unconstitutional,  violative  of  their  rights, 
and  derogatory  to  their  character  as  equal  and  inde- 
pendent members  of  the  Confederacy.  At  the  ses- 
sion of  Congress  which  met  in  December,  1848, 
immediately  succeeding  the  Presidential  election, 
no  action  was  taken  for  the  organization  of  the  new 
Territories.  Political  parties  became  arrayed  upon 
the  distinct  issue  of  the  prohibition  of  slavery  by 
Congress  in  all  the  Territories,  and  upon  the  question 
of  slavery  generally,  which  became  the  engrossing 
question  in  the  Congressional  elections,  which  took 
place  during  the  recess,  and  by  which  the  excite- 
ment was  greatly  increased,  and  the  country  arrayed 
in  two  hostile  sections.  When  Congress  assembled 
in  December,  1849,  the  whole  country  had  become 
alarmed  for  the  peace  and  safety  of  the  Union.  Mr. 
Clay,  who  had  for  years  been  in  private  life,  con- 
sented to  return  to  -the  United  States  Senate,  and 
contribute  his  best  efforts  to  the  restoration  of  peace, 
and  the  adjustment  of  the  sectional  dispute  upon 
some  fair  basis. 

Upon  the  29th  of  January,  1850,  Mr.  Clay  in- 
troduced a  series  of  resolutions,  with  the  hope  that 


COMPROMISE  OF  1850.  T9 

they  would  become  the  basis  of  such  legislation  as 
would  settle  the  matters  in  dispute.  Pending  the 
discussion  of  these  resolutions,  Mr.  Douglas,  as 
chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Territories,  on  the 
25th  of  March,  reported  two  bills,  the  one  for  the 
admission  of  California  as  a  State,  and  the  other  for 
the  organization  of  the  Territories  of  Utah  and  New 
Mexico,  and  the  adjustment  of  the  disputed  boun- 
dary with  Texas.  On  the  19th  of  April  Senator 
Foote,  of  Mississippi,  proposed  the  appointment  of  a 
committee  of  thirteen,  to  which  the  propositions  and 
matters  in  dispute  touching  the  slavery  question, 
should  be  referred.  The  committee  was  appointed, 
and  Clay  made  chairman. 

On  the  8th  of  May,  Mr.  Clay,  from  the  Commit- 
tee of  Thirteen,  made  an  elaborate  report  covering 
all  the  points  in  dispute,  accompanied  by  a  bill. 
By  reference  to  the  bill  as  it  now  appears  on  the 
files  of  the  Senate,  it  will  be  seen  that  it  consists  of 
the  two  printed  bills  previously  reported  from  the 
Committee  on  Territories,  by  Mr.  Douglas,  with  a 
wafer  between  them,  and  black  lines  drawn  through 
the  words,  in  the  heading,  "  Mr.  Douglas,  from  the 
Committee  on  Territories,"  and  written  with  a  pen. 
"  Mr.  Clay,  from  the  Committee  of  Thirteen,  made 
the  following  report."  The  only  material  change 


80  SLAVERY   IN   THE   TERRITORIES. 

or  amendment  made  in  the  Territorial  bills,  is  found 
in  that  section  which  defines  the  powers  of  the  Ter- 
ritorial Legislature.  The  bill,  as  reported  by  Mr. 
Douglas,  provided  that  the  power  of  the  Territorial 
Legislature  should  extend  to  all  rightful  subjects  of 
legislation,  consistent  with  the  Constitution,  without 
excepting  African  slavery  /  while  the  bill,  as  modi- 
fied by  the  Committee  of  Thirteen,  conferred  the 
same  power  on  the  Territorial  Legislature,.  w^A  the 
exception  of  African  slavery.  A  debate  immediately 
sprang  up,  upon  the  question  whether  the  Territorial 
Legislature  should  have  the  power  to  introduce  or 
to  exclude  African  slavery.  Mr.  Davis,  of  Missis- 
sippi, proposed  to  amend  the  bill  so  that  the  Terri- 
torial Legislature  should  have  the  power  to  protect, 
but  not  to  exclude  slavery.  Mr.  Chase,  of  Ohio, 
proposed  an  amendment,  in  the  form  of  a  proviso, 
that  the  Territorial  Legislature  should  not  have  the 
power  to  protect  slavery,  or  recognize  the  right  of 
property  in  man.  Both  of  these  amendments  were 
rejected.  Mr.  Douglas  moved  to  strike  out  the  ex- 
ception in  respect  to  African  slavery,  so  that  the 
Territorial  Legislature  would  have  the  same  power 
over  slavery  as  over  all  other  rightful  subjects  of 
legislation.  This  amendment  was,  on  the  first  trial, 
rejected;  but  when  subsequently  renewed  by  Mr. 


SLAVERY   IN   THE   TERRITORIES.  81 

Norris,  of  JSTew  Hampshire,  at  the  suggestion  of  Mr. 
Douglas,  it  was  adopted  by  a  vote  of  thirty-three  to 
nineteen.  Norris  was  getting  a  little  shaky,  and  I 
made  him  make  the  motion,  to  fix  him. 

Thus  the  bill  reported  by  Mr.  Clay  was  restored 
to  the  precise  form  in  which  it  was  previously  re- 
ported by  Mr.  Douglas,  and  conferred  upon  the  Ter- 
ritorial Legislature  the  same  power  over  slavery  as 
over  all  other  rightful  subjects  of  legislation.  It  is 
due  to  Mr.  Clay  to  remark,  that  in  an  early  portion 
of  the  debate,  he  stated  to  the  Senate  that  the  excep- 
tion on  African  slavery  was  incorporated  into  the 
bill  by  the  Committee  of  Thirteen,  in  opposition  to 
his  vote  and  contrary  to  his  judgment,  and  that  he 
voted, to  strike  it  out  whenever  the  motion  was 
made.  Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  the  compromise 
measures  of  1850,  so  far  as  they  related  to  the  or- 
ganization of  the  Territories,  were  founded  upon  the 
principle  that  the  Territorial  Legislature  should  de- 
termine the  slavery  question,  and  have  the  same 
power  over  it  as  over  all  other  matters  affecting 
•their  internal  polity ;  and  in  this  form  the  bill  passed 
both  houses,  and  became  the  law  of  the  land,  Sep- 
tember 9,  1850. 

The  opponents  of  the  compromises  of  1850  at 
the  North,  as  well  as  at  the  South,  appealed  to  the 


82  COMPKOMISE   OF    1850. 

people  either  to  repeal  or  to  resist  the  execution  of 
these  measures,  for  opposite  reasons.  At  the  North, 
because  it  was  a  total  surrender  of  all  Northern 
rights  to  the  slavery  interest,  inasmuch  as  slavery 
had  not  been  prohibited  by  Congress  in  the  Terri- 
tories, and  because  stringent  measures  had  been  pro- 
vided for  the  rendition  of  fugitive  slaves  ;  while,  at 
the  South,  it  was  insisted  that  there  had  been  a  total 
surrender  of  Southern  rights  by  the  admission  of 
California  into  the  Union,  with  a  prohibition  of 
slavery  in  her  Constitution,  and  by  leaving  slave 
property  in  the  Territories  at  the  mercy  of  the  Ter- 
ritorial Legislatures.  The  friends  of  the  compro- 
mise measures,  however,  stood  firm,  Whig  and 
Democratic,  and  insisted  that  their  respective  parties 
should  endorse  those  measures  in  their  national 
conventions  for  the  nomination  of  Presidential  can- 
didates as  a  rule  of  action  in  the  future.  Accord- 
ingly, when  the  Whigs  assembled  in  national  con- 
vention at  Baltimore  in  1852,  and  nominated  Gen- 
eral Scott  as  their  candidate  for  the  Presidency, 
they  declared  in  their  platform  that  they  approved, 
and  would  carry  out  in  good  faith  the  compromise 
measures  of  1850,  "  in  substance  and  in  principle." 
The  Democratic  party  assembled  a  few  weeks  after- 
wards at  the  same  place,  and  after  nominating 


COMPROMISE   OF    1S50.  83 

Franklin  Pierce  as  their  candidate  for  the  Presi- 
dency, also  adopted  the  same  measures  as  a  part  of 
their  creed,  by  a  unanimous  vote.  Thus  it  will  be 
seen  that  the  two  great  political  parties  of  the  coun- 
try stood  upon  the  same  platform,  so  far  as  the 
slavery  question  was  involved,  and  that  the  prin- 
cipal point  of  controversy  in  that  canvass  was, 
which  party  could  be  most  safely  relied  upon  to 
carry  those  principles  into  effect  in  good  faith. 
The  fact  that  Mr.  Seward  was  the  violent  opponent 
of  President  Fillmore,  and  the  warm  advocate  of 
General  Scott's  nomination,  gave  the  impression  to 
the  country  that  General  Scott,  if  elected,  would  be 
in  a  great  degree  under  the  influence  of  the  New 
York  Senator,  and  thus  tended  to  combine  the  con- 
servative interests  of  the  country  against  General 
Scott,  and  in  favor  of  the  Democratic  nominee. 
Mr.  Pierce  was  elected  President  in  November, 
1852,  receiving  the  electoral  vote  of  all  the  States, 
except  Vermont,  Massachusetts,  Kentucky,  and  Ten- 
nessee, and  an  immense  popular  majority. 


THE  KANSAS-NEBRASKA  BILL. 

AT  the  next  meeting  of  Congress  after  the  elec- 
tion of  General  Pierce,  Mr.  Douglas,  as  chairman 
of  the  Committee  on  Territories,  reported  the  Kansas- 
Nebraska  Bill,  accompanied  by  a  special  report,  in 
which  he  said,  "that  the  object  of  the  committee 
was  to  organize -all  Territories  in  the  future  upon 
the  principles  of  the  compromise  measures  of  1850. 
That  these  measures  were  intended  to  have  a  much 
broader  and  more  enduring  effect,  than  to  merely 
adjust  the  disputed  questions  growing  out  of  the 
acquisition  of  Mexican  territory,  ly  prescribing 
certain  great  fundamental  principles,  which,  while 
they  adjusted  the  existing  difficulties,  would  pre- 
scribe rules  of  action  in  all  future  time,  when  new 
Territories  were  to  be  organized  or  new  States  to 

o  . 

be  admitted  into  the  Union."  The  report  then  pro- 
ceeded to  show  that  the  principle  upon  which  the 
Territories  of  1850  were  organized  was,  that  the 


KANSAS-NEBRASKA   BILL.  85 

slavery  question  should  be  banished  from  the  halls 
of  Congress  and  the  political  arena,  and  referred  to 
the  Territories  and  States  who  were  immediately 
interested  in  the  question,  and  alone  responsible  for 
its  existence;  and  concluded,  by  saying  "that  the 
bill  reported  by  the  committee  proposed  to  carry 
into  effect  these  principles  in  the  precise  language 
of  the  compromise  measures  of  1850." 

By  reference  to  those  sections  of  the  Kansas- 
Nebraska  Act  which  define  the  powers  of  the  Terri- 
torial Legislature,  it  will  be  perceived  that  they  are 
in  the  precise  language  of  the  acts  of  1850,  and  con- 
fer upon  the  Territorial  Legislature  power  over  all 
rightful  subjects  of  legislation,  consistent  with  the 
Constitution,  without  excepting  African  slavery. 

During  the  discussion  of  this  measure  it  was  sug- 
gested that  the  8th  section  of  the  act  of  March  6, 1820, 
commonly  called  the  Missouri  Compromise,  would 
deprive  the  people  of  the  Territory,  while  they  re- 
mained in  a  Territorial  condition  of  the  right  to  de- 
cide the  slavery  question,  unless  said  8th  section 
should  be  repealed.  In  order  to  obviate  this  objec- 
tion, and  to  allow  the  people  the  privilege  of  con- 
trolling this  question,  while  they  remained  in  a  Ter- 
ritorial condition,  the  said  restriction  was  declared 
inoperative  and  void,  by  an  amendment  which  was 


86  KANSAS-NEBRASKA   BILL. 

incorporated  into  the  bill,  on  the  motion  of  Mr. 
Douglas,  with  these  \vords  in  explanation  of  the 
object  of  the  repeal :  "  it  being  the  true  intent  and 
meaning  of  this  act,  not  to  legislate  slavery  into  any 
Territory  or  State,  nor  to  exclude  it  therefrom,  but 
to  leave  the  people  thereof  perfectly  free  tofwm  and 
regulate  their  domestic  institutions  in  their  own 
way,  subject  only  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States"  In  this  form,  and  vrith  this  intent,  the 
Kansas-Nebraska  Act  became  a  law,  by  the  approval 
of  the  President,  on  the  30th  of  May,  1854. 

This  bill  and  its  author  were  principally  assailed 
upon  two  points.  First,  that  it  was  not  necessary 
to  renew  slavery  agitation,  by  the  introduction  of 
the  measure ;  and  secondly,  that  there  was  no  neces- 
sity for  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  restriction. 

To  the  first  objection  it  was  replied,  that  there 
was  a  necessity  for  the  organization  of  the  Territory, 
which  could  no  longer  be  denied  or  resisted.  That 
Mr.  Douglas,  as  early  as  the  session  of  1843,  had  in- 
troduced a  bill  to  organize  the  Territory  of  Nebraska, 
for  the  purpose  of  opening  the  line  of  communica- 
tion between  the  Mississippi  Valley  and  our  posses- 
sions on  the  Pacific  Ocean,  known  as  the  Oregon 
country,  and  which  was  then  under  the  operation 
of  the  treaty  of  joint  occupation,  or  rather  non- 


KANSAS-NEBRASKA   BILL.  87 

occupation,  with  England,  and  was  rapidly  passing 
into  the  exclusive  possession  of  the  British  Hudson's 
Bay  Fur  Company,  who  were  establishing  posts  at 
every  prominent  and  commanding  point  in  the 
country.  That  the  Oregon  Territory  was,  there- 
fore, practically  open  to  English  emigrants,  by  ships, 
while  it  was  closed  to  all  emigration  from  our  West- 
ern States  by  our  Indian  intercourse  laws,  which 
imposed  a  thousand  dollars  penalty,  and  six  months' 
imprisonment,  upon  every  American  citizen  who 
should  be  found  within  the  Indian  country  which 
separated  our  settlements  in  the  Mississippi  or  Mis- 
souri Valley  from  the  Oregon  Territory.  That  the 
desire  for  emigration  in  that  direction  was  so  great, 
that  petitions  were  poured  into  Congress  at  every 
session  for  the  organization  of  the  Territory.  Mr. 
Douglas  renewed  the  introduction  of  his  bill  for  the 
organization  of  Nebraska  Territory,  each  session  of 
Congress,  from  1844  to  1854,  a  period  of  ten  years, 
and  while  he  had  failed  to  secure  the  passage  of  the 
act,  in  consequence  of  the  Mexican  war  intervening, 
and  the  slavery  agitation  which  ensued,  no  one  had 
objected  to  it  upon  the  ground  that  there  was  no 
necessity  for  the  organization  of  the  Territory. 
During  the  discussions  upon  our  Territorial  ques- 
tions during  this  period,  Mr.  Douglas  often  called 


88  EANSAS-NEBBASKA  BILL. 

^attention  to  the  fact  that  a  line  of  policy  had  been 
/  adopted  many  years  ago,  and  was  being  executed 
]  each  year,  which  was  entirely  incompatible  with  the 
/  growth  and  development  of  our  country.  It  had 
originated  as  early  as  the  administration  of  Mr. 
Monroe,  and  had  been  continued  by  Mr.  Adams, 
General  Jackson,  Mr.  Yan  Buren,  Harrison,  and 
by  Tyler,  by  which  treaties  had  been  made  with 
the  Indians  to  the  east  of  the  Mississippi  River,  for 
their  removal  to  the  country  bordering  upon  the 
States  west  of  the  Mississippi  or  Missouri  Eivers, 
with  guaranties  in  said  treaties  that  the  country 
within  which  these  Indians  were  located  should 
never  be  embraced  within  any  Territory  or  State, 
or  subjected  to  the  jurisdiction  of  either,  so  long  as 
grass  should  grow  and  water  should  run.  These 
Indian  settlements,  thus  secured  by  treaty,  com- 
menced upon  the  northern  borders  of  Texas,  or  Red 
River,  and  were  continued  from  year  to  year  west- 
'  ward,  until,  when  in  1844,  Mr.  Douglas  introduced 
his  first  Nebraska  Bill,  they  had  reached  the  Ne- 
braska or  Platte  River,  and  the  Secretaiy  of  War 
was  then  engaged  in  the  very  act  of  removing 
Indians  from  Iowa,  and  settling  them  in  the  valley 
of  the  Platte  River,  with  similar  guaranties  of  per- 
petuity, by  which  the  road  to  Oregon  was  forever  to 


KANSAS-NEBRASKA   BILL.  89 

be  closed.  It  was  the  avowed  object  of  this  Indian 
policy  to  form  an  Indian  barrier  on  the  western 
borders  of  Arkansas,  Missouri,  and  Iowa,  by  Indian 
settlements,  secured  in  perpetuity  by  a  compact, 
that  the  white  settlements  should  never  extend 
westward  of  that  line.  This  policy  .originated  in 
the  jealousy,  on  the  part  of  the  Atlantic  States,  of 
the  growth  and  expansion  of  the  Mississippi  Yalley, 
which  threatened  in  a  few  years  to  become  the  con- 
trolling power  of  the  nation.  Even  Colonel  Benton, 
of  Missouri,  who  always  claimed  to  be  the  champion 
of  the  "West,  made  a  speech,  in  which  he  erected  the 
god  Terminus  upon  the  summit  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains, facing  eastward,  and  with  uplifted  hand,  say- 
ing to  Civilization  and  Christianity,  "  Thus  far 
mayst  thou  go,  and  no  farther  !"  and  General  Cass, 
while  Secretary  of  War,  was  zealous  in  the  execu- 
tion of  this  policy.  This  restrictive  system  received 
its  first  check  in  1844,  by  the  introduction  of  the 
Nebraska  Bill,  which  was  served  on  the  Secretary  of 
"War,  by  its  author,  on  the  day  of  its  introduction, 
with  a  notice  that  Congress  was  about  to  organize 
the  Territory,  and  therefore  he  must  not  locate  any 
more  Indians  there.  In  consequence  of  this  notice, 
the  Secretary  (by  courtesy)  suspended  his  operations 
until  Congress  should  have  an  opportunity  of  acting 


90  KANSAS-NEBRASKA  BILL. 

upon  the  bill;  and  inasmuch  as  Congress  failed  to  act 
that  session,  Mr.  Douglas  renewed  his  bill  and  notice 
to  the  Secretary  each  year,  and  thus  prevented  action 
for  ten  years,  and  until  he  could  procure  action  on 
the  bill.  In  the  mean  time  the  passion  of  the  Western 
people  for  emigration  had  become  so  aroused,  that 
they  could  be  no  longer  restrained ;  and  Colonel 
Benton,  who  was  a  candidate  in  Missouri  for  re- 
election to  the  Senate  in  1852  and  1853,  so  far 
yielded  to' the  popular  clamor,  as  to  advise  the  emi- 
grants, who  had  assembled,  in  a  force  of  fifteen  or 
twenty  thousand,  on  the  western  border  of  Missouri, 
carrying  their  tents  and  wagons,  to  invade  the  Ter- 
ritory and  take  possession,  in  defiance  of  the  Indian 
intercourse  laws,  and  of  the  authority  of  the  Federal 
Government,  which,  if  executed,  must  inevitably 
have  precipitated  an  Indian  war  with  all  those 
tribes. 

When  this  movement  on  the  part  of  Colonel 
Benton  became  known  at  Washington,  the  Pres- 
ident of  the  United  States  despatched  the  Commis- 
sioner of  Indian  Affairs  to  the  scene  of  excitement, 
with  orders  to  the  commanding  officer  at  Fort  Leav- 
en worth  to  use  the  United  States  army  in  resisting 
the  invasion,  if  he  could  not  succeed  in  restraining 
the  emigrants  by  persuasion  and  remonstrances. 


KAXSAS-NEBEASKA   BILL.  91 

The  Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs  succeeded  in 
procuring  the  agreement  of  the  emigrants  that  they 
would  encamp  on  the  western  borders  of  Missouri, 
until  the  end  of  the  next  session  of  Congress,  in 
order  to  see  if  Congress  would  not  in  the  mean 
time,  by  law,  open  the  country  to  emigration. 
When  Congress  assembled  at  the  session  of  1853- 
'54,  in  view  of  this  state  of  facts,  Mr.  Douglas  re- 
newed his  Nebraska  Act,  which  was  modified,  pend- 
ing discussion,  by  dividing  into  two  Territories,  and 
became  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act.  From  these  facts  ( 
you  can  draw  your  own  conclusion,  whether  there 
was  any  necessity  for  the  oi^ganization  of  the  Terri- 
ton^y  and  of  Congressional  action  at  that  time. 

In  regard  to  the  second  objection,  it  is  proper  to 
remark,  that  if  the  necessity  for  the  organization  of 
the  Territories  did  in  fact  exist,  it  was  right  that 
they  should  be  organized  upon  sound  constitutional, 
principles  /  and  if  the  compromise  measures  of 
1850  were  a  safe  rule  of  action  upon  that  subject, 
as  the  country  in  the  Presidential  election,  and  J)oth 
of  the  political  parties  in  their  national  conventions 
in  1852  had  affirmed,  then  it  was  the  duty  of  those 
to  whom  the  power  had  been  intrusted  to  frame  the 
bills  in  accordance  with  those  principles.  ,  There 
was  another  reason  which  had  its  due  weight  in  the 


92  KANSAS-NEBRASKA  BILL. 

repeal  of  the  Missouri  restriction.  The  jealousies 
of  the  two  great  sections  of  the  Union,  North  and 
South,  had  been  fiercely  excited  by  the  slavery  agi- 
tation. The  Southern  States  would  never  consent 
to  the  opening  of  those  Territories  to  settlement,  so 
long  as  they  were  excluded  by  act  of  Congress  from 
moving  there  and  holding  their  slaves ;  and  they  had 
the  power  to  prevent  the  opening  of  the  country 
forever,  inasmuch  as  it  had  been  forever  excluded 
by  treaties  with  the  Indians,  which  could  not  be 
changed  or  repealed  except  by  a  two-third  vote  in 
the  Senate.  But  the  South  were  willing  to  consent 
to  remove  the  Indian  restrictions,  provided  the 
North  would  at  the  same  time  remove  the  Missouri 
restriction,  and  thus  throw  the  country  open  to  set- 
tlement on  equal  terms  by  the  people  of  the  North 
and  South,  and  leave  the  settlers  at  liberty  to  intro- 
duce or  exclude  slavery  as  they  should  think  proper. 
This  was  true  ;  but  this  power  to  defeat  the  Kansas- 
Nebraska  Act  by  refusing  to  make  new  treaties, 
that  is,  repealing  the  old  by  consent  of  both  par- 
ties, the  Indians  and  the  United  States,  was  over- 
looked by  ~both  parties,  or  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act 
might  have  been  defeated.  I  saw  this  objection, 
and  was  often  on  the  point  of  letting  it  slip,  in  de- 
bate, but  as  often  checked  myself.  In  the  mean 


KANSAS-NEBRASKA  BILL.  93 

time  commissioners  were  sent  out,  pending  the  Ne- 
braska Act,  to  make  new  treaties.  A  clause  in  the 
act  made  it  prospective,  so  as  to  await  this  result. 
The  treaties  were  made  and  ratified  by  -the  Senate. 
Bell,  of  Tennessee,  saw  the  objection,  and  alluded 
to  it ;  but  he  did  not  portray  or  grasp  it  fully.  I 
pretended  not  to  be  listening  to  his  speech,  but  was 
terribly  frightened,  when,  on  the  last  night  of  the 
Kansas-Nebraska  Bill  he  made  his  speech  against  it 
(having  been  previously  pledged  to  vote  for  it),  but 
at  a  time  when  the  whole  South  was  pledged  to  it, 
and  would  hardly  even  listen  to  what  he  was  saying. 
In  that  speech,  Bell,  in  substance,  said  that  he  did  not 
blame  the  Senator  from  Illinois  for  the  part  he  was 
acting  on  this  occasion — that  Senator  understood 
what  he  was  about.  He  had  a  grand  scheme  for 
the  building  up  of  a  great  Northwestern  empire, 
which  would  in  a  few  years  be  strong  enough  to 
govern  the  whole  country.  His  scheme'  contem- 
plated the  extinction  of  the  Indian  title  to  a  coun- 
try large  enough  for  ten  or  twelve  new  States,  which 
under  his  guidan.ce  would  soon  be  brought  into  the 
Union,  to  swell  the  power  of  his  own  section.  "  I  re- 
peat that  I  do  not  blame  the  Senator  for  the  part  lie 
is  acting ;  I  only  blame  the  South  for  allowing  them- 
selves to  be  used  as  his  instruments,  to  carry  out  his 


94:  KANSAS-NEBBASKA   BILL. 

grand  scheme  for  his  own  section.  It  is  said  that 
the  Romans  were  in  the  habit  of  conferring  a  civic 
crown  upon  every  Roman  consul  who  added  a  new 
province  to  the  empire.  If  his  section  of  the  coun- 
try shall  prove  as  grateful  as  the  Romans,  he  will 
be  entitled  to  ten  civic  crowns  in  gratitude  for  his 
services." 

Immediately  after  the  Nebraska  Bill  was  intro- 
duced, and  before  the  clause  was  inserted  in  the  bill 
repealing  the  Missouri  Compromise,  an  appeal  to 
the  people  was  prepared  and  published  by  Messrs. 
Chase  of  Ohio,  Sumner  of  Massachusetts,  Seward 
of  New  York,  Wade,  Giddings,  and  other  leading 
Freesoilers,  in  which  they  denounced  the  measure 
as  an  attempt  to  open  the  whole  Northern  country 
to  slavery,  and,  in  fact,  to  introduce  slavery  into  a 
country  large  enough  for  fourteen  States  by  act  of 
Congress,  and  denouncing  the  author  of  it  as  a 
traitor  to  the  cause  of  freedom,  to  the  North,  and 
to  the  whole  country  ;  and  appealing  to  the  friends 
of  freedom,  and  to  all  who  were  opposed  to  the  ex- 
tension of  slavery,  to  forget  all  former  party  distinc- 
tions, hold  public  meetings,  denounce  the  measure 
and  its  author,  send  up  petitions  and  remonstrances 
from  every  town  and  hamlet  in  the  country,  urge 
the  Legislatures  to  send  up  instructions,  and  request- 


KANSAS-NEBRASKA   BILL.  95 

ing  the  preachers  of  the  gospel  to  denounce  it  in 
their  pulpits,  and  all  religious  men  to  assemble  in 
prayer-meetings  and  invoke  the  interposition  of 
divine  vengeance  against  those  who  should  consum- 
mate such  a  damnable  crime.  This  appeal  to  the 
passions  of  the  people  was  prepared  by  its  authors 
secretly,  and  after  being  agreed  to  in  caucus  on  the 
Sabbath  day,  as  appears  from  its  date,  was  printed 
and  sent  to  every  portion  of  the  country  the  day 
before  the  bill  was  to  be  taken  up  for  discussion  in 
the  Senate. 

On  the  next  morning,  a  few  minutes  before  Mr. 
Douglas  was  to  make  his  opening  speech  in  favor 
of  the  bill,  Mr.  Chase  and  Mr.  Sumner  came  to  his 
desk  and  appealed  to  his  courtesy  to  postpone  the 
discussion  for  one  week,  and  assigned  as  a  reason 
that  they  had  not  had  time  to  read  the  hill  and  un- 
derstand its  provisions,  acknowledging  that  it  was 
their  own  fault  and  neglect  that  they  had  not  done 
so,  and  therefore  that  they  had  no  other  claim  to  ask 
the  postponement  than  the  courtesy  of  the  author 
of  the  measure.  Mr.  Douglas  yielded  to  their  ap- 
peal, and  granted  the  postponement.  Three  or  four 
days  afterwards,  he  received  by  mail  from  Ohio  a 
printed  copy  of  this  appeal,  signed  by  Chase  and 
Sumner,  and  hearing  date  several  days  hefore  he  had 


96  KANSAS-NEBBASEA   BILL. 

granted  the  postponement,  which  conduct  he  imme- 
diately denounced  in  open  Senate.  They  had  thus 
lied — had  got  first  before  the  country,  seeking  thus 
by  fraud  to  forestall  public  opinion.  Mr.  Douglas' 
friends  had  reproved  him  for  granting  the  postpone- 
ment. He  replied  to  them  that  it  was  a  fair  meas- 
ure, and  that  he  intended  to  act  fairly  and  honestly, 
and  to  let  friends  and  opponents  all  equally  have  an 
opportunity  to  use  their  abilities,  for  and  against  the 
measure,  understandingly. 

In  response  to  this  appeal  the  wildest  passions 
were  aroused.  Meetings  were  held,  violent  resolu- 
tions of  denunciation  were  passed,  sermons  preached, 
violence  urged  to  any  extent  necessary  to  defeat  the 
measure.  As  a  specimen  of  the  tone  of  the  anti- 
Nebraska  press,  the  New  York  "  Tribune  "  threat- 
ened, and  justified  the  execution  of  the  threa't,  that 
if  the  measure  could  not  be  defeated  in  any  other 
mode,  the  capital  should  have  been  burned  over  the 
heads  of  the  members,  or  blown  up  with  powder. 
Mr.  Douglas  was  burned  and  hung  in  effigy  in  every 
portion  of  the  free  States,  sometimes  in  a  hundred 
different  places  in  the  same  night,  and  nearly  every 
pulpit  of  the  Protestant  churches  poured  forth  its 
denunciations  and  imprecations  upon  every  man 
who  should  vote  for  the  measure.  A  memorial  was 


KANSAS-NEBRASKA   BILL.  97 

presented  in  the  Senate,  among  many  others  of  the 
same  character,  containing  the  signatures  of  three 
thousand  and  fifty  clergymen  protesting  against  the 
measure  in  the  name  of  Almighty  God,  and  implor- 
ing His  vengeance  upon  the  author. 

When  the  bill  passed,  the  Freesoil  members  of 
the  two  houses  immediately  organized  themselves 
into  an  Emigrant  Aid  Association  at  the  city  of 
Washington,  and  urged  the  formation  of  other  asso- 
ciations in  each  of  the  free  States  for  the  purpose 
of  sending  emigrants  to  Kansas.  The  Massachusetts 
Legislature  incorporated  an  Emigrant  Aid  Society, 
with  a  capital  of  $5,000,000,  and  immediately  pro- 
ceeded to  ship  emigrants  to  Kansas,  armed  with 
Colt's  pistols,  a  bowie  knife,  and  a  Bible.  All  the 
troubles  of  the  Territory  grew  out  of  this  armed  and 
forced  emigration.  There  would  have  been  no 
trouble  if  emigration  had  been  left  to  its  natural 
causes  and  course.  What  I  say  about  armed  emi- 
grants is  all  true.  I  have  seen  five  hundred  of 
them,  armed,  come  off  the  ships  at  Chicago,  and 
howl  and  groan  before  my  own  door,  with  bands 
around  their  hats  inscribed  "Freedom  to  Kansas, 
down  with  the  traitors ! "  When  I  returned  to 
Chicago  I  was  met  at  Buffalo  by  a  friend,  who 
brought  letters  from  other  friends  at  Chicago,  pro- 


98  THE   KNOW-NOTHING   PARTY. 

testing  against  ray  return,  and  warning  me  that  I 
would  be  inevitably  killed  if  I  did.  I  insisted  upon 
going,  and  did  so.  I  arrived  there  in  the  morning, 
went  to  my  hotel,  and  after  a  few  days,  three  or 
four,  issued  a  notice  of  a  speech  to  be  made  by  me 
in  front  of  North  Market  Hall.  All  the  newspapers 
in  the  city  denounced  me,  and  published  daily  arti- 
cles encouraging  personal  violence,  reminding  the 
people  that  in  1850,  on  the  passage  of  the  com- 
promise measures,  I  had  returned  and  succeeded  in 
quelling  an  outbreak  against  those  measures,  and 
that  this  thing  could  not  be  done  a  second  time. 
Know-Nothingism  had,  pending  the  Nebraska  Bill, 
been  organized  in  the  United  States  for  the  first 
time,  and  in  Chicago  the  anti-Nebraska  men  had 
organized  into  Know-Nothing  lodges,  and  probably 
included  within  those  lodges  nine-tenths  of  all  the 
men  in  the  city.  It  was  ascertained  that  they  se- 
cretly determined  and  bound  themselves  by  their 
oaths  not  to  allow  me  to  speak ;  and  it  is  kno\vn 
that  one  of  these  thirty  or  forty,  lodges  ordered  by 
telegraph,  and  received  by  express  from  New  York, 
the  night  before  I  was  to  speak;  two  hundred  and 
fifty  of  Colt's  revolvers.  "When  the  day  arrived  the 
flags  were  hung  at  half-mast  on  the  shipping  in  the 
harbor,  and  for  several  hours  -before  the  time  ap- 


KANSAS-NEBRASKA   BILL.  99 

pointed  all  the  church  bells  in  the  city  were  tolled, 
at  which  signal  the  mob  assembled  in  a  force  of 
about  ten  thousand.  I  had  forty  or  fifty  men  who 
pretended  to  be  with  me  privately,  but  not  1ml f  a 
dozen  were  so  openly  /  they  were  all  afraid.  At 
the  appointed  hour  I  repaired  to  the  meeting  and 
went  upon  the  stand,  and  was  greeted  by  that  un- 
earthly yell  taught  and  practised  in  the  Know- 
Nothing  lodges,  a  howl  no  man  can  imitate.  I 
stood  and  looked  at  the  mob  until  the  howling 
ceased.  When  they  ceased  I  commenced  by  saying, 
that  "  I  appear  before  you  to-night  for  the  purpose 
of  vindicating  the  provisions  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska 
Act."  Before  the  sentence  was  ended  the  howl  be- 
gan again.  When  it  ceased  I  would  begin,  and  as 
soon  as  I  commenced  it  was  renewed.  At  times  I 
appealed  to  their  pride,  as  the  champions  of  free 
speech,  for  a  hearing ;  the  howling  was  renewed ; 
at  other  times  I  would  denounce  them  as  a  set  of 
cowards  who  came  armed  with  bowie  knives  and 
pistols  to  put  down  one  man,  unarmed — afraid  to 
hear  the  truth  spoken,  lest  there  might  be  some  hon- 
est men  amongst  them  who  would  be  convinced. 
At  one  time  I  got  a  hearing  for  ten  or  fifteen  min- 
utes, and  was  evidently  making  an  impression  upon 
the  crowd,  when  there  marched  in  from  the  outside 


100  KANSAS-NEBRASKA   BILL. 

a  body  of  three  or  four  hundred  men  with  red  shirts, 
dressed  as  sailors,  and  thoroughly  armed,  who  moved 
through  the  crowd  immediately  in  front  of  the 
stand,  and  then  peremptorily  ordered  me  to  leave  it. 
I  stood  and  looked  at  them  until  they  ceased  yelling, 
and  then  denounced  them  and  put  them  at  defiance, 
and  dared  them  to  shoot  at  an  unarmed  man.  The 
pistols  began  to  fire  all  around  the  outside  of  the 
crowd,  evidently  into  the  air ;  eggs  and  stones  were 
thrown  at  the  stand,  several  of  them  hitting  men 
that  were  near  me,  and  for  several  hours  this  wild 
confusion  and  fury  continued.  The  wonder  is  that 
amid  that  vast  excited  crowd  no  one  was  so  far  excited 
or  maddened  as  to  fire  a  ball  at  me.  The  stand  was 
crowded  with  my  enemies,  reporters,  and  news- 
paper men,  and  this  was  undoubtedly  my  best  pro- 
tection. I  stood  upon  the  front  of  the  stand,  in  the 
midst  of  that  confusion,  from  eight  o'clock  in  the 
evening  until  a  quarter  past  twelve  at  night,  when 
I  suddenly  drew  my  watch  from  my  pocket  and 
looked  at  it,  in  front  of  the  crowd,  and  in  a  distinct 
tone  of  voice  said,  at  an  interval  of  silence,  "  It  is 
now  Sunday  morning — I'll  go  to  church,  and  you 
may  go  to  hell ! "  and  I  retired  amidst  the  uproar, 
got  into  my  carriage  and  rode  to  my  hotel.  The 
crowd  followed  the  carriage,  and  came  near  throw- 


REEDER,  GOVERNOR  OF  KANSAS.       101 

ing  it  off'  the  bridge  into  the  river  as  we  crossed ; 
they  had  seized  it  for  that  purpose,  and  lifted  it,  but 
the  driver  whipped  his  horses  violently,  and  dashed 
through  and  over  them,  and  went  to  the  Tremont 
House,  where  I  retired  to  my  room.  The  mob,  at 
least  five  thousand,  followed,  and  commenced  their 
howls  in  Lake  Street,  fronting  my  room.  The  land- 
lord begged  me  to  leave  the  house,  fearing  they 
would  burn  it  up,  whereupon  I  raised  my  window, 
walked  out  on  the  balcony,  took  a  good  look  at 
them,  and  told  them  that  the  day  would  come  when 
they  would  hear  me^  and  then  bade  them  good- 
night. 

After  the  organization  of  the  opposition  societies 
in  the  South  and  North,  for  the  purpose  of  peopling 
the  Territory,  with  a  view  to  control  the  first  Legis- 
lature, President  Pierce  appointed  Reeder,  Governor 
of  Kansas,  who,  instead  of  calling  an  election  for  the 
organization  of  the  Territory,  immediately  after  his 
appointment,  and  before  these  hired  emigrants  ar- 
rived there,  waited  until  late  in  the  fall,  nearly  a 
year,  and  ordered  the  election  for  the  29th  of  March, 
1855,  for  the  first  Legislature,  at  a  time  in  the  winter 
when  many  of  the  Eastern  emigrants  had  returned 
to  their  homes.  They  had  established  no  homes  in 
Kansas,  had  gone  in  the  fall,  and  returned  in  the 


102  HISTORY   OF   KANSAS. 

winter.  Most  of  them  had  only  gone  to  vote,  and 
return  the  next  day.  A  few  days  before  the  elec- 
tion large  bodies  of  men  could  be  seen  marching 
from  the  various  towns  in  Western  Missouri  to  the 
Kansas  border,  and  on  the  election  day,  and  the  day 
previous,  they  were  crossing  the  Missouri  River  at 
all  points  into  Kansas,  in  armed  parties — some 
with  cannon  and  baggage-wagons,  and  took  posses- 
sion of  all  the  villages  along  the  Missouri  River,  and 
penetrated  to  some  distance  into  the  interior,  and 
thus  controlled  the  election.  When  the  returns  of 
the  election  were  made  to  Governor  Reeder,  pro- 
tests were  filed  against  giving  the  certificates  from 
a  majority  of  the  election  districts,  on  the  ground 
of  fraud,  violence,  and  illegal  election,  leaving  seven 
or  eight  districts  uncontested  where  there  were  no 
such  complaints  of  violence  and  fraud.  Governor 
Reeder  investigated  the  facts  of  each  case  before  he 
granted  the  certificates,  and  in  some  instances 
granted  certificates  of  election,  and  in  other  districts 
issued  writs  for  new  elections  to  take  place  in  the 
month  of  May,  1855.  At  the  election  in  May  the 
same  members  were  reflected  in  a  portion  of  the 
country,  while  in  others  different  candidates  were 
returned  as  elected,  and  they  all  received  their  cer- 
tificates of  election  from  the  Governor. 


HISTORY   OF   KANSAS.  103 

The  Governor  then  issued  his  proclamation  for 
the  Legislature  to  assemble  at  a  town  he  and  others 
had  laid  out  upon  the  military  reservation  at  Fort 
JRiley,  by  the  connivance  of  the  commanding  officer, 
who  was  one  of  the  Governor's  secret  partners,  and 
who  was  subsequently  tried  by  court-martial  and 
cashiered  for  his  conduct.  (The  place  was  named,  I 
believe,  Pawnee,  but  see  on  this  subject  my  report 
to  the  Senate  of  March  12, 1856.)  When  the  Legis- 
lature assembled  at  Pawnee,  they  found  no  con- 
veniences at  Fort  Riley,  no  houses  to  live  in,  with 
but  one  house  in  the  place,  and  that  without  a  floor, 
in  which  the  Legislature  was  to  assemble,  while  the 
cholera  was  raging  at. the  fort,  which  was,  in  conse- 
quence, nearly  abandoned.  The  members  camped 
out  on  the  ground,  and  in  their  wagons.  The  two 
houses  organized  by  the  election  of  their  officers, 
and  then  proceeded  to  examine  all  the  cases  of  con- 
tested election,  deciding  that  the  Governor  had  no 
authority  to  withhold  the  certificates  in  the  first 
election,  and  to  order  a  second,  and  hence  confirmed 
in  their  seats  all  who  were  elected  at  the  first  elec- 
tion with  but  one  exception,  a  Freesoiler.  The 
Legislature  then  proceeded  to  remove  the  seat  of 
Government  to  Shawnee  Mission,  where  there  was 
a  settlement  and  buildings  suitable  for  them  to 


104:       EEEDEK'S  ADMINISTRATION  IN  KANSAS. 

meet  in.  The  Governor  vetoed  the  act,  on  the 
ground  that  the  Legislature  had  no  right  to  remove 
the  seat  of  Government.  The  Legislature  passed 
the  act  over  his  veto,  and  in  accordance  with  it  as- 
sembled at  Shawnee  Mission,  to  which  place  the 
Governor  followed  them.  But  when  they  presented 
to  him  the  bills  which  they  had  passed,  for  his  sig- 
nature, he  declined  to  receive  the  bills,  or  to  recog- 
nize them  as  a  lawful  Legislature,  not  because  they 
had  not  been  duly  elected,  but  for  the  reason  that 
they  were  assembled  in  a  place  not  authorized  by 
law.  From  this  time  all  official  relations  ceased 
between  the  Governor  and  the  Legislature.  The 
Legislature  proceeded  to  pass  a  full  code  of  laws  for 
the  Territory,  and  as  a  matter  of  form  presented, 
them  to  the  Governor  for  his  signature,  and  when 
he  failed  to  return  them,  within  the  time  prescribed 
in  the  organic  act,  they  reenacted  them  and  declared 
them  to  be  in  force  without  his  signature.  Having 
concluded  their  legislative  duties  they  adjourned, 
and  about  that  time  President  Pierce  removed  Gov- 
ernor Reeder,  for  the  alleged  reason  that  he  had 
been  improperly  speculating  in  Indian  lands;  and 
Governor  Reeder  immediately  denounced .  the  acts 
of  the  Legislature  as  being  void,  for  the  reason  that 
they  had  all  been  elected  by  fraud,  and  therefore 


TOPEKA   CONVENTION.  105 

never  constituted  a  Legislature ;  that  is,  Tie  changed 
his  ground,  left  the  Democratic  party,  and  joined 
the  Republicans  or  Freesoilers. 

Immediately  after  the  adjournment  of  the  Legis- 
lature, the  Freesoil  party  called  a  Convention,  at 
which  they  resolved  not  to  recognize  or  obey  the 
laws  which  had  been  passed  by  the  Legislature,  nor 
the  authority  of  the  Territorial  Government  estab- 
lished by  Congress,  and  they  provided  for  calling  a 
Constitutional  Convention  to  frame  a  Constitution 
for  admission  into  the  Union  as  a  State.  Delegates 
were  elected,  and  the  Convention  assembled  at 
Topeka  in  October  of  that  year,  1856,  and  framed 
a  Constitution,  which  was  submitted  to  the  people 
for  ratification  at  an  election  which  the  Convention 
ordered  to  be  held  under  such  regulations  as  should 
be  prescribed  by  an  executive  committee,  of  which 
James  H.  Lane  was  chairman,  and  to  whom  the 
returns  were  to  be  made  and  certified.  As  no  one 
voted  at  this  election,  except  those  who  denied  the 
authority  of  the  Territorial  Government,  the  Consti- 
tution was,  of  course,  ratified.  At  the  election  for 
delegates  to  Congress,  which  was  held  about  the 
same  time,  under  the  authority  of  a  law  passed  by 
the  Legislature,  the  Freesoilers  refused  to  vote,  al- 
leging as  a  reason,  that  if  they  voted  at  that  elec- 
5* 


106  TOPEKA   CONSTITUTION. 

tion  they  recognized  the  validity  of  the  Territorial 
authority,  but  ordered  through  their  executive  com- 
mittee another  election,  to  be  held  one  week  there- 
after, at  which  they  elected  Mr.  Parrott.  The 
others  elected  Whitfield.  The  Freesoilers  pro- 
ceeded also  to  organize  their  State  Government 
under  the  Topeka  Constitution,  by  the  election  of  a 
Governor  and  State  officers,  Legislature  and  judges. 
The  Legislature  thus  elected  assembled  and  chose 
Eeeder  and  Lane  United  States  Senators,  who  came 
to  Washington  and  brought  the  Constitution  with 
them,  and  demanded  admission  into  the  Union.  I 
had  been  confined  by  serious  illness  at  Terre  Haute, 
Indiana,  that  session,  1855  and  1856,  and  until  the 
month  of  February.  I  arrived  here  (Washington) 
in  very  feeble  health.  The  President's  annual  mes- 
sage, and  a  special  message  which  he  sent  to  Con- 
gress in  the  month  of  February,  1856,  in  regard  to 
this  Topeka  movement,  together  with  all  other  mat- 
ters referring  to  the  disturbances  in  Kansas,  were 
referred  to  the  Committee  on  Territories,  from 
which,  on  the  12th  of  March,  I  made  an  elaborate 
report,  in  which  I  gave  a  full  history  of  those 
Kansas  difficulties,  together  with  an  exposition  of 
the  principles  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act.  The 
result  was,  that  I  reported  a  bill  for  the  admission 


TOPEKA   CONSTITUTION.  107 

of  Kansas  into  the  Union  when  she  should  have  the 
requisite  population  for  a  member  of  Congress, 
ninety-three  thousand  four  hundred  'and  twenty, 
and  treating  the  Topeka  Constitution  as  a  nullity, 
being  the  result  of  a  revolutionary  movement,  and 
recognizing  the  other,  the  Territorial  Legislature,  as 
a  lawful  body,  and  refusing  to  review  its  legislative 
proceedings,  considering  the  validity  of  the  Terri- 
torial enactments  a  judicial  question,  which  it  was 
not  competent  for  the  legislative  department  of  the 
Government  to  decide.  In  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives Whitn'eld  was  declared  elected,  the  House 
taking  the  same  view  of  the  Topeka  Constitution  as 
the  Senate  did. 

The  Senate,  in  their  anxiety  to  close  the  Kansas 
controversy,  at  once  substituted  a  bill  introduced  by 
Mr.  Toombs,  of  Georgia,  for  the  bill  reported  by  the 
Committee  on  Territories.  I  acquiesced,  and  we 
passed  Mr.  Toombs'  bill  by  a  strict  "party  vote. 
The  bill  provided  that  the  people  of  Kansas  might 
at  once  proceed  to  elect  delegates  to  a  Conven- 
tion to  frame  a  State  Constitution,  in  the  manner 
prescribed  in  the  bill,  and  should  be  received  into 
the  Union  on  an  equal  footing  with  the  original 
States,  without  regard  to  the  number  of  their  popu- 
lation. The  Toombs  bill  was  sent  to  the  House, 


108  THE  TOOMBS   BILL. 

wliere  all  after  the  enacting  clause  was  stricken 
out,  by  a  strict  party  vote,  the  Republicans  having 
a  majority  in  that  House,  and  a  bill  for  the  admis- 
sion of  Kansas  into  the  Union,  under  the  Topeka 
Constitution,  was  substituted,  and  sent  to  the  Senate 
for  concurrence.  The  Senate  disagreed  to  the 
amendment  of  the  House,  and  the  bill  was  lost  by 
the  disagreement  of  the  two  Houses.  It  was  evi- 
dent during  all  the  proceedings  that  the  Republicans 
were  as  anxious  to  keep  the  Kansas  question  open  as 
the  Democrats  were  to  close  it,  in  view  of  the  ap- 
proaching Presidential  election. 

The  Kansas  question  became  the  all-absorbing 
question  in  the  Presidential  election  of  1856,  and 
came  near  defeating  the  election  of  Mr.  Buchanan. 
When  the  result  of  the  Presidential  election  was 
known,  the  public  mind  settled  down  into  the  gen- 
eral belief  that  he  would  insure  a  fair  expression  of 
the  popular  opinion  in  Kansas,  in  the  settlement  of 
their  domestic  institutions.  During  the  winter  of 
1856.  and  1857,  the  Territorial  Legislature  of  Kansas 
passed  an  act  providing  for  the  election  of  delegates 
to  a  Convention  to  frame  a  Constitution  prepara- 
tory to  their  admission  into  the  Union.  By  this  act 
it  was  provided  that  there  should  be  a  registry 
made  of  all  the  leo-al  voters  in  each  of  the  counties 


ME.  BUCHANAN'S  ADMINISTRATION.  109 

of  the  Territory,  with  a  view  of  insuring  a  fair  elec- 
tion, and  of  excluding  all  illegal  voters;  and  that 
when  said  registry  should  be  completed,  it  should 
be  the  duty  of  the  Governor  to  apportion  the  dele- 
gates among  the  different  counties,  in  proportion 
to  the  number  of  legal  voters  as  shown  by  the  reg- 
istry. 

Soon  after  his  inauguration  Mr.  Buchanan  ap- 
pointed Robert  J.  Walker  Governor  and  F.  P.  Stan- 
ton  Secretary  of  the  Territory  of  Kansas,  Mr. 
Stanton  repaired  to  the  Territory  immediately,  and 
performed  the  duties  of  Governor  until  the  arrival 
of  Mr.  Walker,  who  was  detained  at  Washington 
several  weeks.  When  the  registry  of  legal  voters 
was  returned  to  Mr.  Stanton,  he  made  the  apportion- 
ment in  accordance  with  the  returns,  although  it 
was  subsequently  shown  that  fifteen  counties,  being 
nearly  one-half  of  the  counties  in  the  Territory, 
had  been  omitted  in  the  returns,  no  votes  having 
been  registered  in  those  counties.  When  Mr. 
Walker  was  first  appointed  Governor  he  declined 
to  accept  the  appointment,  but  was  induced  to  re- 
consider, at  the  personal  solicitation  of  Mr.  Buchan- 
an, and  of  other  friends,  and  at  last  consented  to 
accept  it,  on  the  condition  that  upon  the  compari- 
son of  opinions  between  himself,  the  President,  and 


110          E.    J.    WALKER,    GOVERNOR   OF   KANSAS. 

his  Cabinet,  it  should  be  found  that  they  concurred 
in  the  policy  that  the  Constitution  to  be  formed  by 
the  convention,  which  had  been  provided  for,  should 
be  submitted  to  the  people  for  ratification  or  rejec- 
tion, at  a  fair  election,  to  be  held  in  pursuance  of 
law,  for  that  purpose,  before  it  should  be  sent  to 
Congress  for  acceptance.  Mr.  Buchanan  and  his 
entire  Cabinet  agreed  to  this  condition  as  the  line 
of  policy  to  be  pursued  by  the  Federal  administra- 
tion. Governor  Walker,  while  yet  at  Washington, 
prepared  his  inaugural  address  to-  the  people  of 
Kansas,  in  which  he  urged  the  people  of  all  parties 
in  Kansas  to  vote  for  delegates  at  the  election  which 
was  about  to  be  held,  with  the  assurance  that  the 
convention  would  assemble  only  for  the  purpose  of 
framing  a  Constitution  to  be  submitted  to  the  people 
for  ratification  or  rejection,  and  not  for  the  purpose 
of  adopting  a  Constitution  to  be  put  in  force  with- 
out ratification.  In  this  inaugural  address,  Gov- 
ernor Walker  assured  the  people  of  Kansas  that  in 
the  event  that  the  Constitution  should  not  be  sub- 
mitted to  the  people  for  ratification,  and  should  not 
be  ratified  by  a  majority  of  the  legal  voters  at  such 
election,  he  would  use  his  best  efforts  to  defeat  the 
admission  of  Kansas  under  such  Constitution,  and 
that  he  was  authorized  to  say  that  the  President  and 


.          GOVERNOR  WALKER'S  INAUGURAL.          Ill 

every  member  of  his  Cabinet  endorsed  this  position. 
When  Governor  Walker  left  Washington  en  route 
for  Kansas,  he  stopped  one  day  in  Chicago  to  con- 
sult with  me,  as  he  stated,  at  the  request  of  the 
President,  and  to  see  whether  I  would  endorse  and 
sanction  the  line  of  policy  upon  which  they  had 
agreed  in  respect  to  the  submission  of  the  Constitu- 
tion to  the  people ;  and  in  order  that  I  might  under- 
stand precisely  what  that  position  was,  Governor 
Walker  read  his  inaugural  address  to  me,  as  slightly 
modified  by  interlineations  in  the  handwriting  of 
the  President  of  the  United  States  himself.  I  said 
to  Governor  Walker  that  while  I  did  not  precisely 
comprehend  what  right  the  President  and  his  Cabi- 
net had  to  interfere  witli  the  convention,  by  insist- 
ing that  the  Constitution  should  be  submitted  to  the 
people,  yet  as  a  Senator  who  would  have  to  vote  for 
or  against  the  admission  of  Kansas  under  the  Consti- 
tution, I  had  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  I  should 
require  satisfactory  evidence  that  the  Constitution 
was  the  act  and  deed  of  the  people  of  Kansas,  and 
a  faithful  embodiment  of  their  will,  and  that  I 
should  regard  a  ratification  by  the  people  at  a  fail- 
election  held  for  that  purpose  as  the  best  evidence 
of  that  fact.  With  this  assurance  Governor  Walker 
proceeded  to  Kansas,  and  published  his  inaugural 


112  PLEDGES   OF   PRESIDENT   AND   CABINET. 

address,  containing  these  pledges  on  behalf  of  him- 
self and  of  the  President  and  his  Cabinet,  that  the 
Constitution  must  be  submitted  to  the  people  before 
Kansas  could  fie  admitted  into  the  Union  under  it. 

"When  the  fact  was  made  known  to  Governor 
Walker  that  there  conld  not  be  a  fair  election  of 
delegates  by  the  whole  people  of  Kansas,  for  the 
reason  that  nearly  one-half  of  the  counties  had 
been  omitted  in  the  registration  of  votes,  and  con- 
sequently deprived  of  the  privilege  of  electing  dele- 
gates to  the  convention,  he  issued  an  address  to  the 
people,  in  which  he  acknowledged  the  great  wrong 
which  had  been  done  them  in  the  omission  to  regis- 
ter all  the  votes  in  all  the  counties,  and  regretted 
that  he  had  no  power,  under  the  law,  to  correct 
the  error,  and  appealed  to  the  people  to  go  to  the 
polls,  and  vote  in  those  counties  where  a  registry 
had  been  made,  and  to  trust  to  the  fair  dealing  of 
the  convention,  with  the  assurance  which  had  been 
given  by  the  President  and  his  Cabinet,  and  which 
he  renewed  for  himself,  that  the  whole  people  of 
Kansas  would  have  an  opportunity  of  voting  for  or 
against  the  Constitution,  when  it  should  be  submit- 
ted to  the  people  for  ratification  or  rejection.  Many 
of  the  people  of  Kansas,  still  being  sceptical,  and 
doubting  whether  such  an  opportunity  would  be 


LECOMPTON   CONVENTION.  113 

afforded  them,  called  upon  the  candidates  for  dele- 
gates to  pledge  themselves  in  writing  to  agree  to  no 
Constitution  which  should  not  be  submitted  to  the 
people  for  ratification.  In  the  county  of  Douglas, 
which  was  the  largest  in  the  Territory,  such  a 
pledge  was  prepared,  signed,  and  published  by 
John  Calhoun,  who  was  subsequently  president  of 
the  convention,  and  by  all  of  his  associates  on  the 
ticket,  and  upon  that  pledge  they  were  elected  dele- 
gates. It  is  believed,  and  I  am  very  certain,  that 
similar  pledges  were  given  in  several  other  counties, 
and  during  the  entire  canvass  for  the  election  of 
delegates  it  was  conceded  that  the  convention  was 
merely  to  frame  a  Constitution,  and  submit  it  to  the 
people  for  ratification,  and  not  to  put  it  in  operation 
without  ratification. 

During  that  summer,  and  before  the  Lecompton 
Convention  assembled,  a  convention  was  held,  com- 
posed of  delegates  from  all  the  counties  in  the  Ter- 
ritory, to  nominate  a  delegate  to  Congress,  to  be 
supported  by  the  Democratic  party  at  the  October 
election ;  and  with  a  view  of  securing  the  votes  of 
the  entire  Democratic  party,  free  State  men  as  well 
as  proslavery  men,  a  resolution  was  adopted  by  a 
vote  of  forty  to  one,,  pledging  the  Democratic  party 
to  submit  the  Constitution,  which  should  be  framed 


114:  LECOMPTON   CONVENTION. 

by  the  Lecompton  Convention,  to  the  people  for 
ratification  or  rejection.  The  Lecompton  Conven- 
tion assembled  two  or  three  weeks  previous  to  the 
Territorial  election,  which  was  to  be  held  on  the 
first  Monday  in  October,  for  the  election  of  a  dele- 
gate to  Congress,  and  for  members  of  the  Territorial 
Legislature,  and  after  organizing  by  the  election  of 
officers,  and  the  appointment  of  committees,  and 
reference  to  them  of  the  various  parts  of  the  pro- 
posed Constitution,  the  convention  adjourned,  or 
took  a  recess,  until  after  the  October  election,  for 
the  purpose,  as  it  was  subsequently  avowed,  of  as- 
certaining whether  the  proslavery  party  or  free 
State  party  had  a  majority  in  the  Territory,  so  far 
as  that  fact  could  be  determined  by  the  results  fur- 
nished by  that  election.  When  it  became  known 
that  the  Freesoil  party  had  carried  the  election  by 
an  overwhelming  majority,  the  convention  then  de- 
termined that  they  would  not  submit  the  Constitu- 
tion to  tlis  people,  for  fear  that  it  would  be  rejected 
if  they  did  so,  and  therefore  determined  to  submit 
only  one  clause,  which  recognized  and  established 
the  institution  of  slavery  in  the  Territory,  and  this 
clause  was  submitted  in  such  a  form  as  compelled 
every  man  who  voted  for  it  or  against  it,  to  vote 
for  the  whole  Constitution  at  the  same  time,  and  in 


LECOMPTON   CONSTITUTION.  115 

the  event  his  vote  was  challenged,  to  take  an  oath 
to  support  that  Constitution.  By  this  trick,  for  I 
can  fairly  call  it  so,  no  man  was  permitted  to  vote 
for  or  against  the  slavery  clause  without  voting  for 
the  Constitution,  when  there  were  provisions  in  the 
Constitution  itself,  elsewhere,  and  in  other  parts, 
than  the  slavery  clause,  recognizing  and  establishing 
slavery,  so  that  it  would  be  a  slave  State,  whether 
the  proslavery  clause  was  adopted  or  rejected. 

"When  Congress  assembled  in  December,  1857, 
the  President  of  the  United  States,  in  his  annual 
message,  recommended  to  Congress  to  admit  Kansas 
into  the  Union  under  the  Lecompton  Constitution, 
without  reference  to  the  question  whether  the  pro- 
slavery  clause  should  or  should  not  be  adopted,  and 
without  submitting  the  Constitution  to  the  ratifica- 
tion or  rejection  of  the  people. 

The  moment  the  Secretary  of  the  Senate  had 
concluded  the  reading  of  the  message,  Mr.  Douglas 
rose,  and  expressed  his  dissent  from  so  much  of  the 
message  as  related  to  the  admission  of  Kansas  under 
the  Lecompton  Constitution,  and  on  the  next  day  he 
delivered  a  speech,  in  which  he  gave  his  reasons  for 
such  dissent.  He  objected  to  the  admission  of 
Kansas,  under  that  Constitution,  not  because  of  any 
particular  provisions  which  it  contained,  but  because 


116  LECOMPTON   CONSTITUTION. 

there  was  no  satisfactory  evidence  that  it  was  the  act 
and  deed  of  the  people  of  Kansas,  or  that  it  em- 
bodied their  will,  but,  on  the  contrary,  that  there 
was  abundance  of  evidence  which  warranted  the  con- 
clusion, that  at  least  two-thirds,  if  not  four-fifths  of 
the  entire  population  of  Kansas  were  irreconcilably 
opposed  to  it.  He  stated  that  his  opinions  or  action 
on  the  admission  of  Kansas  under  that  Constitution 
would  not  be  in  the  slightest  degree  affected  by  the 
vote  which  was  to  be  had  on  the  21st  of  that  month, 
for  or  against  the  pro-slavery  clause,  for  the  reason 
that  they  had  a  right  to  be  heard  in  respect  to  the 
other  provisions  of  the  Constitution,  as  well  as  that 
one.  In  other  words,  he  maintained  that  Congress 
had  no  right  to  force  a  Territory  into  the  Union  as 
a  State,  against  their  wishes,  or  to  force  upon  them 
a  Constitution  or  institutions  against  their  wills. 

After  the  result  of  the  election  of  the  21st  of  De- 
cember, on  the  adoption  of  the  pro-slavery  clause, 
was  made  known,  Mr.  Calhoun,  president  of  the 
Convention,  who  was  also  Surveyor-General  for  the 
Territories  of  Kansas  and  Nebraska,  a  Federal  office- 
holder, and  therefore  under  the  influence  of  Mr. 
Buchanan,  holding  office  by  his  appointment,  in- 
stead of  complying  with  the  directions  of  the  Le- 
compton  Convention,  to  transmit  the  Constitution 


CRnTENDEN-MONTGOMERY  AMENDMENT.    117 

direct  to  Congress,  took  it  to  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  who  himself  transmitted  it  to  Con- 
gress, accompanied  by  a  special  message,  in  which 
he  gave  his  reasons  for  the  admission  of  Kansas  into 
the  Union  under  it.  It  was  in  this  message  that 
Mr.  Buchanan  declared,  that  it  had  been  decided 
by  the  highest  judicial  tribunal  in  the  land,  "  that 
slavery  exists  in  Kansas  by  virtue  of  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States"  and  therefore  that  Kansas 
was  at  that  moment  as  much  a  slave  State  as 
Georgia  or  South  Carolina,  and  that  there  was  no 
possible  mode  in  which  slavery  could  be  abolished 
therein,  or  excluded  therefrom,  but  by  the  admission 
of  Kansas  into  the  Union  as  a  State. 

The  Senate  passed  the  bill  for  the  admission  of 
Kansas  under  the  Lecompton  Constitution,  which 
was  amended  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  by 
striking  out  all  after  the  enacting  clause,  and  substi- 
tuting another  bill,  which  is  known  as  the  Critten- 
den-Montgomery  amendment,  in  consequence  of  its 
having  been  oifered  by  Mr.  Crittenden  in  the  Senate, 
where  it  was  rejected,  and  renewed  in  the  House  by 
Mr.  Montgomery,  of  Pennsylvania.  The  Senate 
refused  to  agree  to  the  amendment  of  the  House, 
and  after  much  contention  between  the  two  Houses, 
a  Committee  of  Conference  was  appointed,  composed 


118  THE   ENGLISH   AMENDMENT. 

of  three  members  from  each  House,  who  prepared 
and  reported  to  their  respective  Houses  a  substitute 
for  the  entire  bill,  which  is  known  as  the  English 
amendment,  and  which  was  concurred  in  by  the 
two  Houses,  and  became  the  law  of  the  land. 

This  bill,  as  it  passed,  provided  in  substance 
that  an  election  should  be  held  in  Kansas,  for  or 
against  the  acceptance  of  certain  land  grants  which 
were  made  in  the  bill  to  the  proposed  State  of 
Kansas,  for  the  purposes  of  education  and  internal 
improvements ;  and  if  at  such  election  a  majority  of 
the  votes  cast  should  be  in  favor  of  the  acceptance 
of  said  land  grants,  such  vote  should  be  deemed  a 
ratification  of  the  Lecompton  Constitution,  and  evi- 
dence a  desire  to  come  into  the  Union  under  it ;  but 
that,  in  the  event  a  majority  of  the  votes  at  that 
election  should  be  cast  against  the  land  grants,  the 
people  of  Kansas  should  remain  in  a  territorial  con- 
dition until  the  Territory  should  contain  ninety- 
three  thousand  four  hundred  and  twenty  inhabit- 
ants. At  the  election  provided  for  in  the  bill,  the 
people  rejected  the  land  grants  by  a  majority  of 
eight  to  one,  and  consequently  rejected  the  Lecomp- 
ton Constitution,  and  thus  it  died. 

The  Montgomery  amendment  provided,  in  sub- 
stance, that  the  Lecompton  Constitution  should  be 


MONTGOMERY   AND   ENGLISH   AMENDMENTS.       119 

submitted  to  the  legal  voters  of  Kansas  for  ratifica- 
tion or  rejection,  at  a  fair  election  to  be  held  for 
that  purpose,  and  if  at  such  election  a  majority  of 
the  votes  should  be  cast  in  favor  of  this  measure, 
the  President  of  the  United  States  should  issue  his 
proclamation  declaring  Kansas  a  State  of  the  Union, 
on  an  equal  footing  with  the  original  States ;  but  if 
a  majority  of  the  votes  at  such  election  should  be 
cast  against  the  measure,  then  the  people  of  Kansas 
were  at  liberty  to  proceed  to  call  another  Conven- 
tion, and  frame  a  new  Constitution,  with  which, 
when  submitted  to  and  ratified  by  the  people,  Kansas 
should  be  admitted  into  the  Union.  The  chief  dif- 
ference between  this  measure  and  the  English  bill, 
consisted  in  the  fact,  that  under  the  Crittenden 
amendment,  if  Kansas  rejected  the  Lecompton  Con- 
stitution, she  could  proceed  at  once  to  make  a  new 
one,  and  come  into  the  Union  with  the  same  popu- 
lation ;  but  by  the  English  bill,  if  Kansas  accepted 
the  Lecompton  Constitution,  she  could  come  into 
the  Union  with  thirty-five  thousand  people,  but  if 
she  rejected  it,  she  must  stay  out  until  she  had 
ninety-three  thousand  four  hundred  and  twenty. 
The  adoption  of  the  Crittenden-Montgomery  amend- 
ment, and  the  refusal  to  pass  the  Senate  bill  for  the 
admission  of  Kansas  under  the  Lecompton  Consti- 


120      DEFEAT   OF   BUCHANAN'S   ADMINISTRATION. 

tution,  was  a  defeat  of  the  administration,  for  they 
staked  every  thing  upon  the  admission  of  Kansas 
under  the  Lecompton  Constitution,  without  sending 
it  back  to  the  people  for  ratification  or  rejection. 
When  defeated  in  this  attempt,  they  took  shelter 
under  the  English  bill,  by  submitting  the  question 
to  the  people  of  Kansas  in  an  indirect  and  unfair 
manner,  but  still  in  such  a  manner  as  enabled  the 
people  of  Kansas  to  reject  it,  by  voting  against  the 
land  grants,  which  they  ardently  desired,  and  which 
were  a  bribe  to  have  them  vote  for  it,  accompanied 
with  a  penalty,  if -they  did  not,  of  being  obliged  to 
remain  out  of  the  Union  until  they  had  ninety-three 
thousand  four  hundred  and  twenty  inhabitants. 
Here  was  a  bribe  and  a  threat.  The  rejection  of 
the  English  bill  by  the  people  of  Kansas  rendered 
the  defeat  of  the  administration  complete  in  all  re- 
spect-s,  and  was  equivalent  to  an  unconditional  rejec- 
tion of  the  Lecompton  Constitution  by  the  Congress 
at  first,  with  the  exception  that  they  gained  the 
provision  of  the  English  bill,  forcing  Kansas  to  re- 
main out  of  the  Union  until  it  should  have  a  largely 
increased  population. 

I  supported  the  Crittenden-Montgomery  amend- 
ment, which  would  have  carried  out  fully  all  my 
wishes  and  principles,  but  I  opposed  violently  the 
English  bill. 


REPUBLICAN   AND   KNOW-NOTHING   PARTIES.      121 

Question. — In  1852  both  "Whigs  and  Democrats 
endorsed  the  compromise  measures.  What  became 
of  the  Whig  party  after  the  defeat  of  Scott,  and 
what  was  the  origin  of  the  Republican  and  Know- 
Nothing  parties  ? 

Answer. — The  Whigs  were  so  badly  beaten,  hav- 
ing carried  only  four  States,  that  they  were  utterly 
dispirited,  and  very  unwisely  broke  up  their  party 
organization  and  disbanded.  Soon  after,  in  1854, 
the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill  came  before  the  country, 
and  there  arose  an  anti-Nebraska  party,  into  which 
most  of  the  Whigs  went.  This  party  kept  the  name 
Anti-Nebraska  for  more  than  a  year  and  a  half,  and, 
in  1856,  took  the  name  of  the  Republican  party. 

In  the  spring  of  1854,  pending  the  Nebraska 
Bill,  the  Know-Nothing  party  arose  silently  and 
secretly.  The  first  that  was  known  of  it  was,  when 
in  parts  of  Pennsylvania,  Philadelphia,  New  Orleans, 
and  other  places,  persons  were  elected  to  office  who 
were  not  in  nomination,  and  not  known  to  be  run- 
ning till  after  elected,  and  when  in  Washington  peo- 
ple were  driven  from  the  polls.  This  party  gave  vi- 
tality and  strength  to  the  Republican  party.  Nearly 
all  the  Republicans  throughout  the  country  went 
into  its  lodges  ;  and  a  member  from  Tennessee,  by 

some  means,  got  hold  of  the  names  of  the  Repub- 
6 


122     KEPUBLICAN   AND   KNOW-NOTHING   PABTIES. 

lican  members  of  Congress  who  were  members,  and 
made  a  speech  in  the  House,  in  which  he  called 
them  by  name  and  defied  them  to  deny  it.  The 
party  struck  terror  everywhere  among  the  Demo- 
crats, and  threatened  to  gain  absolute  possession  of 
the  Government.  I  tried  to  get  the  Democrats  in 
caucus  to  denounce  it,  but  they  refused,  and  were 
afraid.  General  Cass  said  to  me  that  I  had  enough 
to  contend  with,  and  could  not  carry  on  my  shoul- 
ders opposition  to  this  new  element.  I  was  the  first 
Democrat  to  make  a  speech  against  it.  I  did  so  at 
Independence  Hall,  Philadelphia,  The  party  re- 
ceived the  name  Know-Nothing,  because  its  mem- 
bers were  instructed  to  answer  "  I  know  nothing  " 
to  all  questions  put  to  them.  It  had  not  principles 
to  make  a  party — no  great  issues.  It  first  split  be- 
tween the  North  and  South  Americans  on  the  sla- 
very question,  and  it  finally  died  quickly,  being 
nothing  more  nor  less  than  the  present  Republican 
party  merged  into  it. 

I  refer  you  to  my  speeches  in  the  Senate  for  the 
whole  argument  on  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act.  I 
passed  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act  myself.  I  had  the 
authority  and  power  of  a  dictator  throughout  the. 
whole  controversy  in  both  houses.  The  speeches 
were  nothing.  It  was  the  marshalling  and  direct- 


SQUATTER   SOVEREIGNTY.  123 

ing  of  men,  and  guarding  from  attacks,  and  with  a 
ceaseless  vigilance  preventing  surprise. 

In  opposition,  Seward's  and  Snmner's  speeches 
were  mere  essays  against  slavery.  Chase,  of  Ohio, 
was  the  leader.  Bell  never  made  a  speech  that  was 
an  argument. 

POPULAR  AND   SQUATTER   SOVEREIGNTY  DEFINED  AND 
DISTINGUISHED. 

The  name  of  Squatter  Sovereignty  was  first  ap- 
plied by  Mr.  Calhoun,  in  a  debate  in  the  United 
States  Senate  in  1848,  between  himself  and  General 
Cass,  in  respect  to  the  right  of  the  people  of  Cali- 
fornia to  institute  a  government  for  themselves  after 
the  Mexican  jurisdiction  had  been  withdrawn  from 
them,  and  before  the  laws  of  the  United  States  had 
been  extended  over  them.  General  Cass  contended 
that  in  such' a  case  the  people  had  a  right,  an  inher- 
ent and  inalienable  right,  to  institute  a  government 
•for  themselves  and  for  their  own  protection.  Mr. 
Calhoun  replied,  that  with  the  exception  of  the  na- 
tive Californians,  the  inhabitants  of  that  country 
were  mere  squatters  upon  the  public  domain,  who 
had  gone  there  in  vast  crowds,  without  the  authority 
of  law,  and  were  in  fact  trespassers  as  well  as  squat- 
ters upon  the  public  lands,  and  to  recognize  their 


124:  POPULAR    SOVEREIGNTY. 

• 

right  to  set  up  a  government  for  themselves  was  to 
assert  the  doctrine  of  Squatter  Sovereignty.  The 
term  had  no  application  to  an  organized  Territory 
under  the  authority  of  Congress,  or  to  the  powers 
of  such  organized  Territory,  but  was  applied  solely 
to  an  unorganized  country  whose  existence  was  not 
recognized  by  law.  On  the  other  hand,  what  is 
called  Popular  Sovereignty  in  the  Territories,  is  a 
phrase  used  to  designate  the  right  of  the  people  of 
an  organized  Territory,  under  the  Constitution  and 
laws  of  the  United  States,  to  govern  themselves  in 
respect  to  their  own  internal  polity  and  domestic 
affairs. 


OKIGIN,  HISTOKY,  AND  STATE  OF  PAK- 
TIES,  OF  MEN  AND  OF  MEASUKES, 

FROM  THE  FORMATION  OF  THK  GOVERNMENT  DOWN  TO 
THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  PRESIDENT  PIERCE. 

UNMISTAKABLE  indications  were  given,  in  the 
convention  which  framed  the  Federal  Constitution, 
of  radical  differences  of  opinion  in  respect  to -the 
character  of  the  Federal  Government  which  they 
were  about  to  form,  and  which  subsequently,  to 
some  extent,  entered  into  the  formation  of  political 
parties. 

There  were  two  parties  in  the.  convention  ar- 
rayed upon  the  same  question,  whether  a  national 
Government  should  first  be  established  for  the 
United  States,  or  whether  the  system  of  confeder- 
ated and  sovereign  States  should  be  continued,  with 
such  modifications  as  experience  had  proven  to  be 
necessary. 

Alexander  Hamilton  was  the  leader  of  the  ex- 


126  OEIGIN   OF   POLITICAL   PARTIES. 

treme  national  party,  who  wished  to  establish  a 
strong  national  Government,  and  proposed  to  elect 
a  President  for  life  ;  Senators  for  life  ;  members  of 
the  House  for  a  long  term  of  years  ;  the  Governors 
of  the  States  to  be  appointed  by  the  President  of 
the  United  States,  and  all  legislative  enactments  by 
the  States  to  be  subject  to  the  approval  or  disap- 
proval of  the  United  States.  Mr.  Madison  and  Mr. 
Randolph,  of  Virginia,  while  they  did  not  go  to  the 
full  length  of  Mr.  Hamilton's  views,  leaned  strongly, 
in  that  direction;  while  Mr.  George  Mason,  of  Yir- 
ginia,  the  Rutledges  of  Carolina,  and  others,  were 
content  with  the  Articles  of  Confederation,  with 
slight  modifications.  Jealousies  also  arose  between 
the  large  States  and  the  small  ones ;  the  former  con- 
tending for  a  voice  in  the  Federal  Government  in 
proportion  to  population,  while  the  latter  insisted 
that  each  State,  being  a  sovereign  power,  should 
have  an  equal  voice  in  the  Federal  Government, 
without  reference  to  population.  These  conflicting 
interests  prevented  either  party  from  carrying  out 
its  entire  plan,  and  coerced  a  compromise,  in  which 
all  yielded  more  or  less  of  their  opinions.  The  re- 
sult was  the  present  Constitution.  General  Wash- 
ington was  neutral,  though  leaning  to  the  strong 
Government,  the  Federal  side. 


EEPUBLICAN   AND   FEDERAL   PARTIES.  127 

After  the  Federal  Government  was  organized, 
the  school  of  politicians  of  which  Colonel  Hamilton 
was  the  head,  endeavored  to  make  the  present  Con- 
stitution, Jy  construction,  mean  what  they  would 
have  made  it,  if  they  had  wielded  the  power  in  the 
convention,  while  the  extreme  State  Rights  men  en- 
deavored to  curtail  the  powers  of  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment by  the  opposite  rules  of  construction ;  while 
others,  of  which  Mr.  Madison  was  the  most  distin- 
guished, endeavored  to  give  the  Government  a  fair 
trial  under  the  Constitution  as  it  had  been  made 
and  adopted. 

The  first  question  of  any  considerable  import- 
ance which  brought  these  two  systems  into  conflict, 
was  the  charter  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States 
in  1791 ;  Colonel  Hamilton  and  his  school  contend- 
ing that  Congress  had  the  power  to  charter  such  a 
bank,  while  the  State  Rights  school,  of  which  Mr. 
Jefferson  had  become  the  leader,  denied  the  exist- 
ence of  such  power  in  Congress,  for  the  reason  that 
it  was  not  delegated  in  the  Constitution.  Mr.  Mad- 
ison took  sides  with  Mr.  Jefferson  and  his  friends 
upon  this  question. 

The  next  question,  which  was  the  most  extreme 
and  significant  of  all,  was  the  enactment  of  what  is 
popularly  known  as  the  Alien  and  Sedition  Laws 


128  ALIEN   AND   SEDITION   LAWS. 

of  1798.  These  were  two  distinct  enactments,  al- 
though usually  referred  to  as  one,  because  involv- 
ing similar  principles.  The  Alien  Law,  as  it  is 
called,  authorized  the  President  of  the  United  States 
to  cause  any  alien  who  should  be  found  within  our 
limits,  and  whose  presence  the  President  should  be- 
lieve was  dangerous  to  the  peace  and  good  order  of 
the  country,  to  be  arrested  and  removed  beyond  the 
limits  of  the  United  States.  The  Sedition  Law 
made  it  a  criminal  offence,  punishable  with  impris- 
onment, for  any  person  to  speak  or  write  injuriously 
to-  the  reputation  of  the  President,  his  Cabinet,  or 
any  officer  of  the  Government.  Under  the  Sedition 
Law  a  large  number  of  Republican  or  Democratic 
editors,  who  were  opposed  to  the  Federal  adminis- 
tration of  John  Adams,  were  arrested  and  consigned 
to  prison ;  and  one  of  these  from  the  State  of  Yer- 
mont,  while  in  prison,  was  elected  to  Congress. 

The  Republican  party,  of  which  Mr.  Jefferson 
was  the  acknowledged  head,  denounced  the  Alien 
and  Sedition  Laws  as  direct  and  palpable  infractions 
of  the  Constitution,  and  dangerous  to  the  rights  and 
liberties  of  the  people.  The  power  of  the  Federal 
Government  was  at  this  time  so  firmly  established, 
that  the  Republican  members  of  Congress  despaired 
of  their  ability  to  render  any  further  service  in  the 


RESOLUTIONS   OF   1T98   AND   1799.  129 

national  councils ;  and  accordingly  Mr.  Madison,  Mr. 
Albert  Gallatin,  and  others,  retired  from  Congress, 
and  took  seats  in  their  respective  State  Legislatures, 
with  the  hope  of  organizing  State  resistance  to  Fed- 
eral encroachments.  Mr.  Jefferson  wrote  the  Ken- 
tucky Resolutions  of  1798,  and  forwarded  them  to 
his  friend,  George  Nichols,  in  Kentucky,  to  be 
adopted  by  the  Legislature  of  that  State.  These 
resolutions  denounced  the  Alien  and  Sedition  Laws 
as  a  violation  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  and  asserted  the  doctrine  that  the  Constitu- 
tion, being  a  compact  between  sovereign  and  inde- 
pendent States,  each  member  of  the  confederacy  had 
a  right  to  judge  for  itself  of  the  nature  of  the  com- 
pact, and  the  extent  of  its  violation. 

Mr.  Madison  is  understood  to  be  the  author  of 
the  Resolutions  of  1799,  adopted  by  the  Virginia 
Legistature,  and  was  chairman  of  the  committee, 
and  the  author  of  their  report  enforcing  and  ex- 
pounding the  doctrines  of  the  Kentucky  Resolutions 
of  1798,  and  the  Virginia  Resolutions  of  1799. 

The  Federal  party,  on  the  other  hand,  insisted 
that  each  department  of  the  Federal  Government 
was  the  judge  of  the  extent  of  its  own  authority 
under  the  Constitution,  and  that  Congress,  like  the 
British  Parliament,  had  the  exclusive  power  of  de- 


130   TRIUMPH  OF  JEFFERSON  AND  REPUBLICAN  PARTY. 

termiuing  the  extent  of  their  authority,  and  conse- 
quently that  the  Alien  and  Sedition  Laws  must  be 
regarded  and  held  as  constitutional,  for  the  reason 
that  Congress  had  so  decided  by  the  act  of  passing 
them. 

Before  the  Federal  Government  and  the  States 
were  brought  into  actual  collision  upon  the  issues 
thus  presented,  the  Presidential  election  of  1800 
put  an  end  to  the  controversy,  by  the  triumph  of 
the  Republican  party,  in  the  election  of  Mr.  Jeffer- 
son, and  the  consequent  rejection  of  Mr.  Adams  and 
his  policy.  I  may  here  remark,  that  though  Chief- 
Justice  Marshall  became  the  leading  intellect  of  the 
Federalist  party  during  Mr.  Adams's  administration, 
he  was  constantly  charged  with  being  imbued  with 
Virginia  abstractiom,  and  not  to  be  relied  upon  in 
carrying  out  Federal  measures^  His  integrity  and 
judgment  were  not  doubted. 

After  the  election  of  1800,  the  Federal  party 
dwindled  into  a  small  minority,  composed  in  great 
part  of  men  of  large  wealth  and  respectability  of 
character  and  talents.  Mr.  Jefferson  maintained  a 
majority  in  both  houses  of  Congress,  and  was  re- 
elected  in  1804  by  a  very  large  majority,  and  held 
control  of  all  the  departments  of  the  Government 
for  the  period  of  eight  years,  when  he  was'  succeeded 


EMBARGO   AND   NON-INTEECOUKSE   LAWS.         131 

by  Mr.  Madison,  who  had  been  his  Secretary  of  State 
during  both  his  terms,  and  was  deemed  a  faithful  ex- 
ponent of  the  Jeffersonian  policy.  Towards,  the  lat- 
ter part  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  administration,  questions 
affecting  our  maritime  rights  became  serious  matters 
of  dispute  witli  Great  Britain  ;  such  as  the  right  of 
search  exercised  by  British  vessels  over  American 
vessels  upon  the  high  seas,  and  the  impressment 
into  the  British  service  of  all  sailors  of  British  birth 
who  were  found  upon  American  vessels.  In  retali- 
ation for  these  acts,  Mr.  Jefferson  and  Mr.  Madison 
recommended  embargo  laws  and  non-intercourse 
laws,  which  only  aggravated  the  irritation,  until  it 
resulted  in  declaration  of  war  in  1812.  Mr.  Madi- 
son was  reflected,  and  administered  the  Govern- 
ment until  the  4th  of  March,  1817,  when  he  was 
succeeded  by  Mr.  Monroe,  who  had  been  a  member 
of  his  Cabinet,  and  who  was  regarded  as  the  legiti- 
mate political  successor  of  Madison  and  Jefferson. 
During  the  war  a  large  number  of  the  old  Federalist 
party,  including  John  Quincy  Adams,  became  iden- 
tified with  the  Republicans,  which  fact,  to  a  certain 
extent,  obliterated  party  lines,  although  the  great 
body  of  the  Federal  party,  especially  the  New  Eng- 
land States,  took  part  against  the  war,  and  even 
sympathized  witli  the  British.  Towards  the  close 


132          HAKTFORD   CONTENTION WAK   OF   1812. 

of  the  war  the  leaders  of  the  Federal  party  in  New 
England  held  a  Convention  at  Hartford,  Connecti- 
cut, at  which  they  deliberated,  with  closed  doors, 
and  in  secret  council,  upon  the  condition  of  the 
country,  and  upon  the  propriety  of  forming  an  alli- 
ance with  Great  Britain,  and  of  withdrawing  from 
the  Federal  Union.  The  sudden  arrival  of  the  news 
of  peace,  however,  terminated  the  war,  in  a  blaze 
of  glory,  at  New  Orleans,  and  thus  put  an  end  to  the 
treasonable  schemes  of  the  New  England  Federalists. 
The  odium  attached  to  the  Federal  party,  and  even 
to  the  name  of  Federalist,  was  so  great  after  the  war 
had  closed,  that  all  the  politicians  in  that  party  who 
cherished  a  desire  for  political  promotion,  either  dis- 
avowed the  name  and  joined  the  Republicans,  or 
proclaimed  a  truce  and  sought  for  new  issues  upon 
which  new  parties  could  be  constructed. 

The  Bank  of  the  United  States  having  been 
rechartered  in  1816,  by  the  cooperation  of  the 
Republican  party  with  its  Federal  supporters,  was 
for  a  time  taken  out  of  the  political  issues  of 
the  day ;  and  the  pecuniary  embarrassments  and 
financial  derangements  consequent  upon  the  war, 
created  a  necessity,  as  was  supposed,  for  increas- 
ing duties  upon  the  importation  of  foreign  goods, 
with  discriminations  for  the  encouragement  of  do- 


THE  EEA  OF  GOOD  FEELING.        133 

mestic  manufactures.  In  this  measure  a  large  body 
of  the  Republicans,  with  Mr.  Calhoun  and  Cheves, 
of  South  Carolina,  Lowndes,  and  other  distin- 
guished Southern  Republicans,  took  the  lead,  as 
they  also  did  with  the  re-charter  of  the  Bank  of 
the  United  States,  and  in  planning  and  executing  a 
general  system  of  roads,  canals,  and  other  internal 
improvements  by  the  Federal  Government.  The 
cooperation  of  so  many  Republicans  with  the  great 
body  of  the  Federalists,  upon  these  several  meas- 
ures, had  the  effect  of  almost  obliterating  party 
lines,  and  of  producing  what  was  known  in  the 
political  circles  of  that  day  as  the  era  of  good  feel- 
ing under  Jimmy  Monroe's  administration.  This 
general  harmony,  however,  was  suddenly  and  fear- 
fully disturbed  in  1819,  1820,  and  1821,  by  the 
introduction  of  the  slavery  question  as  an  element 
of  party  strife,  when  the  people  of  Missouri  applied 
to  Congress  for  permission  to  form  a  Constitution 
and  State  Government  preparatory  to  their  admis- 
sion into  the  Union.  The  Northern  Federalists 
sprung  upon  the  country  the  proposition  to  prohibit 
slavery  in  all  the  Territories  and  "  new  States " 
hereafter  to  be  organized  and  admitted  into  the 
Union. 

It  had  been  the  uniform  custom  of  the  Republi- 


134  PRESIDENTIAL   NOMINATIONS. 

can  or  Democratic  party,  from  the  period  of  its  first 
organization  until  1824,  to  have  the  Republican 
Democratic  members  of  the  two  houses  of  Congress 
assemble  in  caucus  near  the  expiration  of  e'ach 
Presidential  term,  and  nominate  candidates  for 
President  and  Yice-President  of  the  United  States, 
to  be  supported  by  the  party.  As  the  time  ap- 
proached, towards  the  close  of  Mr.  Monroe's  second 
term,  for  the  Congressional  caucus  to  assemble  and 
nominate  candidates  for  the  succession,  jealousies 
and  rivalries  arose  in  the  Republican  ranks,  which 
divided  the  party  into  several  factions,  each  rally- 
ing around  its  favorite  leader.  Mr.  John  Quincy 
Adams,  who  had  become  a  professed  Republican, 
and  was  Secretary  of  State  under  Mr.  Monroe,  be- 
came a  candidate  for  the  Presidency.  Mr.  William 
IT.  Crawford,  who  was  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
under  Mr.  Monroe,  also  became  a  candidate.  John 
C.  Calhoun,  who  was  Mr.  Monroe's  Secretary  of 
War,  likewise  became  a  candidate.  Henry  Clay, 
who  was  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives, 
and  had  acquired  great  reputation  during  the  war 
as  a  popular  leader,  became  a  candidate ;  while 
the  friends  of  General  Andrew  Jackson,  who  had 
acquired  great  glory  and  renown  by  his  Indian 
campaigns,  and  especially  by  the  battle  of  New 


PRESIDENTIAL   ELECTION   OF   1824.  135 

Orleans,  presented  his  name  for  the  Presidency. 
While  these  several  gentlemen  were  recognized  as 
candidates  by  the  country,  and  were  supported  by 
their  friends  as  Republicans,  and  each,  in  the  opinion 
of  their  friends,  was  pronounced  the  trne  representa- 
tive of  the  Republican  party  ;  a  small  portion  of  the 
members  of  Congress,  who  still  had  a  great  rever- 
ence for  the  usages  of  the  party,  assembled  in  caucus,  /\ 
and  nominated  William  H.  Crawford,  of  Georgia, 
for  President,  and  Martin  Yan  Buren,  of  New  York, 
for  Yice-President,  and  declared  them  to  be  the 
regularly  nominated  candidates,  according  to  the 
usages  of  the  party.  The  friends  of  Adams,  Clay, 
Calhoun,  and  General  Jackson,  all  refused  to  recog- 
nize the  binding  force  of  the  nominations  made  by 
the  Congressional  caucus,  and  appealed  to  the  coun- 
try to  support  their  respective  favorites.  Before  the 
time  of  election  however  arrived,  the  friends  of  Mr. 
Calhoun,  in  Pennsylvania,  in  which  State  he  ex- 
pected the  largest  support,  because  of  his  high  tariff 
and  internal  improvement  doctrines,  withdrew  his 
name,  and  united  upon  General  Jackson  as  their 
candidate,  and  presented  the  name  of  Mr.  Calhoun 
for  Yice-President,  in  which  movement  Calhoun 
acquiesced.  When  the  result  of  the  election  was 
known,  it  appeared  that  General  Jackson  had  re- 


136  ELECTION   OF   MR.    ADAMS. 

ceived  the  highest  number  of  electoral  votes,  that 
Mr.  Adarns  stood  next  highest  on  the  list,  Mr. 
Crawford  third,  and  Mr.  Clay  fourth,  and  that  no 
one  having  received  a  majority,  the  election  was  re- 
ferred  to  the  House  of  Representatives,  where,  ac- 
cording to  the  provisions  of  the  Constitution,  the 
choice  was  confined  to  the  three  highest;  conse- 
quently Mr.  Clay  was  ruled  out  as  being  ineligible, 
by  the  House,  where  it  was  supposed  that,  in  con- 
sequence of  his  personal  popularity  with  the  mem- 
bers, he  would  have  been  chosen,  if  eligible. 
Under  these  circumstances,  it  wras  conceded  on  all 
v.  hands  that  Mr.  Clay  held  the  balance  of  power, 
v  and  could  give  the  Presidency  to  whichever  of  the 
three  he  preferred.  The  extreme  ill  health  and  pro- 
tracted sickness  of  Mr.  Crawford  put  him  out  of  the 
question,  and  reduced  the  contest  to  the  choice  of 
either  Jackson  or  Adams.  Great  doubts  were  for  a 
long  time  entertained  which  Mr.  Clay  would  choose, 
there  not  being  cordial  relations  between  himself 
and  General  Jackson,  and  a  deadly  hostility,  in- 
volving an  adjourned  question  of  veracity,  existing 
between  himself  and  Mr.  Adams,  whose  conduct  at 
the  Treaty  of  Ghent  he  had  fiercely  denounced, 
charging  him  with  having  proposed  to  sell  out  the 
free  navigation  of  the  Mississippi  River,  out  of  hos- 


ELECTION   OF   GENERAL   JACKSON.  137 

tility  to  the  West,  for  an  interest  in  the  Eastern  cod- 
fisheries.  It  was  charged  at  the  time,  and  the  name 
of  James  Buchanan,  of  Pennsylvania,  given  as  the 
author,  that  Mr.  Clay  sent  a  message  to  General 
Jackson,  that  he  would  make  him  President,  pro- 
vided General  Jackson  would  appoint  him  Secretary 
of  State,  and  that  General  Jackson  indignantly  re- 
jected the  proposition,  declaring  that  his  right  hand 
should  never  know  what  his  left  would  do.  Im- 
mediately afterwards  the  friends  of  Mr.  Clay  voted 
for  Mr.  Adams,  and  secured  his  election,  and  Mr. 
Adams  appointed  Mr.  Clay  Secretary  of  State. 
The  whole  land  was  filled  at  once  with  charges  of 
bargain  and  corruption  between  Mr.  Adams  and 
Mr.  Clay,  and  a  coalition  was  formed  between  the 
friends  of  Jackson,  Crawford,  and  Calhoun,  to  op- 
pose and  break  down  the  administration,  and  in 
1828  all  the  opposition  united  upon  General  Jack- 
son for  President  and  Calhoun  for  Yice-President, 
and  secured  their  election  by  an  overwhelming  ma- 
jority. From  the  election  of  General  Jackson  dates 
the  reconstruction  of  the  old  Republican  party, 
under  the  name  of  the  Democratic  party,  which  has 
ever  since  continued  with  its  organization  intact,  al- 
though it  has  modified  its  position  upon  some  of  the 
questions  upon  which  it  was  founded,  while  many 


138     SOUTH   CAROLINA   NULLIFICATION   DOCTRINE. 

others  have  in  the  progress  of  events  befcome  ob- 
solete. 

Immediately  after  the  inauguration  of  General 
Jackson,  a  violent  opposition  was  organized  by  Mr. 
Calhoun  and  his  Southern  associates,  against  the 
protective  tariff  which  had  been  adopted  in  1828, 
and  which  soon  gave  indications  of  a  settled  pur- 
pose to  resist  the  collection  of  the  revenue  under  the 
laws  of  Congress,  by  interposing  State  authority, 
claiming  for  its  sanction  the  resolutions  of  1798  and 
1799.  This  doctrine  was  for  the  first  time  formally 
proclaimed  and  avowed  in  the  Senate  in  1830,  in 
the  famous  debate  between  Hayne  and  Webster. 
The  Legislature  of  South  Carolina,  under  the  advice 
of  Mr.  Calhoun,  passed  an  act  calling  a  Convention 
of  delegates  to  be  elected  by  the  people  of  the  State, 
to  assemble,  and  by  virtue  of  their  sovereign  power, 
as  a  member  of  the  Confederacy,  to  annul  the  act 
of  Congress,  the  tariff  act,  by  pronouncing  it  null 
and  void,  and  declaring  that  it  should  never  be  exe- 
cuted within  the  limits  of  that  State.  Mr.  Hayne, 
the  leader  of  the  nullifiers  in  the  Senate,  resigned 
his  seat  in  that  body,  and  accepted  the  office  of  Gov- 
ernor of  South  Carolina,  for  the  purpose  of  conduct- 
ing in  person  State  resistance  to  Federal  authority, 
and. Mr.  Calhoun  resigned  his  office  of  Yice-Presi- 


SUPPKESSION   OF   NULLIFICATION.  139 

dent  of  the  United  States,  and  accepted  a  seat  in 
the  Senate  to  fill  Mr.  Hayne's  vacancy,  as  the 
champion  of  nullification  in  that  body.  General 
Hamilton,  of  South  Carolina,  was  appointed  by  Gov- 
ernor Hayne  commander-in-chief  of  the  military 
forces  of  the  State,  and  in  order  to  produce  a  collis- 
ion with  the  Federal  authorities,  purchased  a  vessel 
and  sent  it  to  Cuba  to  be  laden  with  sugar  and  re- 
turn to  Charleston  without  paying  duties.  In  view 
of  these  facts,  President  Jackson  issued  a  proclama- 
tion, warning  the  people  of  South  Carolina  of  the 
perilous  consequences  of  resisting  the  laws  of  the 
United  States,  and  appealing  to  their  patriotism  to 
return  to  their  allegiance,  and  avowing  his  fixed 
purpose  to  enforce  the  laws  of  the  United  States, 
and  to  reduce  all  rebels  to  subjection  by  the  use  of 
the  whole  power  of  the  country  if  necessary.  He 
also  sent  a  special  message  to  Congress,  communica- 
ting all  the  facts,  and  asking  for  additional  powers 
and  authority  to  enable  him  to  enforce  the  laws ;  and 
he  did  not  hesitate  on  all  occasions  to  avow  his  pur- 
pose to  seize  and  hang  Miv.Calhoun  the  first  instant 
that  blood  was  shed.  At  this  stage  of  the  proceed- 
ings Mr.  Clay  introduced  into  the  Senate  a  bill  for 
the  modification  of  the  tariff,  which  is  usually  known 
as  Clay's  Compromise  Tariff  Bill,  by  the  provisions 


140  CLAY'S  COMPROMISE  TARIFF  BILL. 

of  which  the  tariff  duties  were  to  be  reduced  by  a 
regular  ratio  each  year  for  ten  years,  when  the  high- 
est rate  of  duty  should  be  fixed  at  20  per  cent,  ad  va- 
lorem. Mr.  Calhoun  accepted  this  bill  as  a  compro- 
mise, and  it  passed  both  houses  of  Congress  and  be- 
came the  law  of  the  land.  Thus  ended  nullification. 

When  the  tariff  duties,  in  1842,  reached  the 
standard  of  twenty  per  cent,  ad  valorem  by  gradual 
reductions,  the  Whig  party,  then  being  in  power, 
passed  a  new  protective  tariff  bill,  known,  accord- 
ing to  the  party  slang  of  that  day,  as  the  Black 
Tariff,  which  imposed  higher  protective  duties,  and 
was  consequently  more  obnoxious  to  the  free-traders 
of  the  South,  than  even  the  tariff  of  1828.  This 
tariff  bill  continued  in  force  until  1846,  when  the 
Democrats,  having  succeeded  to  power  under  Mr. 
Polk,  repealed  it,  and  substituted  in  its  place  the 
revenue  tariff  of  1846,  which  continued  in  force 
until  1856,  when,  in  consequence  of  the  large  sur- 
plus revenue  received  under  it,  it  was  modified,  with 
the  view  of  reducing  the  revenue,  without  mate- 
rially changing  its  principles.  The  Whigs  held  to 
the  protective  principle,  and  the  Democrats  the 
revenue  principle. 

The  following  is  the  origin  of  the  name  of  the 
Whig  party : 


NAME   OF   WHIG   PAKTY.  141 

After  Genera]  Jackson  had  vetoed  the  United 
States  Bank  in  July,  1832,  and  removed  the  public 
deposits  from  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  in  Sep- 
tember, 1833,  lie  was  denounced  by  all  the  friends 
of  the  bank  and  the  opponents  of  his  administration 
as  a  tyrant,  who  carried  out  his  own  prejudices  and 
purposes  regardless  of  law,  and  in  violation  of  the 
Constitution.  The  Senate  of  the  United  States  then 
consisted  of  a  majority  opposed  to  his  adminis- 
tration, in  consequence  of  the  coalition  between 
Mr.  Calhoun  and  his  followers,  and  the  opposition 
party,  headed  by  Clay  and  Webster,  and  which, 
from  the  time  of  General  Jackson's  election  to  the 
Presidency,  had  been  known  as  the  National  Re- 
publican party.  At  this  period  James  Watson 
Webb,  editor  of  the  New  York  "  Courier  and  En- 
quirer," had  received  a  loan  from  the  Bank  of  the 
United  States  of  $52,000,  and  on  the  next  day  his 
paper  denounced  General  Jackson  and  his  adminis- 
tration, which  he  had  previously  supported,  for  ve- 
toing the  bank,  and  increased  its  denunciations  when 
he  removed  the  deposits,  and  appealed  to  all  the  op- 
position to  General  Jackson  by  whatever  name  they 
had  been  previously  known,  or  whatever  might  have 
been  their  past  affinities,  to  unite  in  rescuing  the 
Government  from  the  hands  of  the  tyrant,  under  the 


142  NAME   OF   WHIG  PAETY. 

name  of  Whig.  He  went  into  a  history  of  the 
Whig  party  of  England  to  show  that  it  was  an 
honored  and  revered  name,  and  that  its  chief  char- 
acteristic was  opposition  to  the  prerogatives,  usur- 
pations, and  tyrannies  of  the  crown,  asserting  that 
such  a  party  was  then  needed  in  this  country  to 
maintain  the  same  position,  and  sustain  the  same 
principles  ;  and  that  for  this  reason  he  should  here- 
after call  the  opposition  by  the  name  of  the  WJiig 
party.  The  opposition  papers  throughout  the  coun- 
try generally  copied  General  Webb's  article  and 
adopted  the  name,  and  in  the  course  of  a  few 
months  the.  party  was  known  all  over  the  Union 
as  the  Whig  party.  But  while  the  name  was  , 
changed  from  National  Republican  to  Whig,  the  (^ 
principles  of  the  party  remained  the  same.  Thej7 
continued  to  be  the  advocates  of  the  Bank  of  the 
United  States,  of  a  protective  tariff,  and  of  a  system 
of  internal  improvements  by  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment— these  being  its  chief  measures. 

The  quarrel  between  Mr.  Calhoun  and  General 
Jackson,  early  in  his  administration,  led  to  a  disso- 
lution of  General  Jackson's  Cabinet,  in  consequence 
of  one  portion  of  it  being  devoted  to  the  political 
fortunes  of  Mr.  Calhoun.  Martin  Van  Buren,  the 
Secretary  of  State,  who  was  General  Jackson's  es- 


JACKSON   REORGANIZES   HIS   CABINET.  143 

pecial  friend,  set  the  example  to  all  the  other  mem- 
bers of  the  Cabinet  by  tendering  his  resignation, 
upon  the  ground  that  no  administration  could  be 
successful  without  unity  in  the  Cabinet.  The  other 
members  all  followed  Mr.  Van  Buren's  example, 
and  General  Jackson  accepted  the  resignations  of 
all  the  Cabinet,  and,  at  the  same  time,  recalled 
Louis  McLane,  of  Delaware,  who  was  minister  to 
England,  to  accept  a  seat  in  his  new  Cabinet,  and 
appointed  Mr.  Yan  Buren  his  successor  at  the  Court 
of  St.  James.  When  the  Senate  assembled,  Mr. 
Calhoun  and  his  friends  made  a  coalition  with  the 
National  Republican  party,  headed  by  Clay  and 
Webster,  to  reject  the  nomination  of  Mr.  Van 
Buren  as  minister  to  England,  upon  the  alleged 
ground  that  he  had  referred  in  an  improper  manner 
to  our  domestic  party  questions  in  an  official  de- 
spatch to  the  British  Government,  but  on  the  real 
ground,  as  the  country  believed,  of  themselves  strik- 
ing a  mortal  blow  at  the  success  of  General  Jack- 
son's administration.  This  attempt  gave  rise  to  a 
bitter  and  exciting  debate  in  the  Senate,  in  secret 
executive  session,  which  was  subsequently  published. 
When  the  vote  was  taken  the  Senate  was  evenly  di- 
vided, and  consequently  it  devolved  upon  Mr.  Cal- 
houn, the  Vice-President,  to  give  the  casting  vote. 


14:4:  VAN  BTTKEN   ELECTED   VICE-PRESIDENT. 

which  he  did,  against  the  confirmation  of  Mr.  Yan 
Buren.  The  moment  this  result  was  announced, 
the  Democratic  party  throughout  the  country,  and 
especially  the  friends  of  Mr.  Yan  Buren,  raised  the 
cry  of  persecution,  and  immediately  placed  his  name 
at  the  head  of  their  papers  for  Yice-Pi  esident  of  the 
United  States  in  place  of  Mr.  Calhoun,  to  preside 
over  the  same  body  which  had  rejected  his  nomina- 
tion to  England.  A  National  Convention  was  held 
at  Baltimore  in  1832,  by  which  General  Jackson 
was  nominated  for  the  Presidency,  and  Mr.  Yan 
Buren  for  the  Yice-Presidency,  by  a  unanimous  vote, 
General  Jackson  having  no  competitors,  and  all  the 
previous  candidates  for  the  Yice-Presidency  with- 
drawing in  favor  of  Mr.  Yan  Buren.  He  was 
elected  Yice-President  at  the  same  time  that  Gen- 
eral Jackson  was  reflected  President,  and  on  the 
4th  of  March,  1833,  he  took  his  seat  as  the  presid- 
ing officer  of  the  Senate,  Calhoun,  Webster,  and 
Clay,  who  had  been  the  chief  instruments  of  his  re- 
jection, being  then  all  members  of  that  body.  The 
sympathy  and  enthusiasm  created  for  Mr.  Yan 
Buren  by  his  rejection  as  minister  to  England,  and 
the  favor  extended  to  him  by  General  Jackson,  in- 
dicated him  as  General  Jackson's  successor  so  plain- 
ly, that  all  competitors  deemed  it  useless  to  contest 


FINANCIAL   CRISIS   OF   1837.  145 

V  {    Ff 

his  nomination ;  and  all  of  the  leading  Democrats, 
who  were  unwilling  to  support  the  election  of  Mr. 
Yan  Buren,  had  no  other  alternative  'than  to  take 
refuge  in  the  ranks  of  the  opposition  under  the  lead 
of  Clay,  Webster,  and  Calhoun.  Mr.  Yan  Buren 
was  nominated  at  Baltimore  in  1835,  without  oppo- 
sition, as  the  Democratic  candidate  for  the  Presi- 
dency, and,  in  November,  1836,  was  elected  Presi- 
dent by  an  overwhelming  majority,  the  opposition 
to  him  in  the  Northern  States  voting  for  William 
Henry  Harrison,  and  in  the  Southern,  for  Hugh  S. 
White,  of  Tennessee. 

Within  a  few  weeks  after  the  inauguration  of 
Mr.  Yan  Buren,  on  the  4th  of  March,  1837,  the  pe- 
cuniary revulsion  took  place  which  caused  all  the 
banks  in  the  country  to  suspend  specie  payments, 
and  brought  bankruptcy  upon  the  Federal  Treasury, 
being  deprived  of  its  revenues  and  the  means  of 
.paying  its  debts  and  daily  expenses,  by  the  failure 
of  the  banks,  with  which  the  public  revenues  were 
deposited.  Mr.  Yan  Buren  was  reduced  to  the  ne- 
cessity of  convening  an  extra  session  of  Congress, 
which  assembled  early  in  September  of  that  year, 
and  to  which,  in  his  annual  message,  he  recom- 
mended his  famous  Sub-Treasury  measure,  for  the 

divorce  of  the  Government  from  all  banking  insti- 
10 


146    MEASURES   OF   VAN   BUEEN's   ADMINISTRATION. 

tutions,  and  the  collection  of  all  the  public  revenues 
in  gold  and  silver  to  be  deposited  in  and  paid  out 
directly  from  the  Federal  Treasury. 

To  the  astonishment  of  all  his  political  associates 
and  allies,  as  "well  as  of  his  adversaries,  Mr.  Calhoun 
gave  his  efficient  and  ardent  support  to  the  Sub- 
Treasury  measure,  and  immediately  became  recon- 
ciled to  Mr.  Yan  Buren,  and  the  ardent  supporter  of 
his  administration.  The  Sub-Treasury  was  adopted 
by  the  two  Houses  of  Congress,  and  became  the  law 
of  the  land.  But  the  pecuniary  revulsion  was  so 
great,  and  the  distress  of  the  community  so  over- 
whelming, that  the  people  of  the  country  could  not 
be  made  to  believe  that  the  Democratic  party,  and 
the  Federal  administration  under  General  Jackson 
and  Mr.  Yan. Buren,  were  not  in  a  great  measure 
responsible  for  the  evils  under  which  they  labored. 
The  Whig  party  assembled  in  National  Convention 
at  Harrisburg,  Pa.,  on  the  1st  of  December,  1839, 
and  nominated  General  "W.  H.  Harrison,  of  Ohio, 
for  President,  and  John  Tyler,  of  Yirginia,  for  Yice- 
President ;  and  refrained  from  laying  down  any 
platform  of  principles,  leaving  the  candidates  en- 
tirely uncommitted  on  every  measure  of  public 
policy,  and  the  party  entirely  free  in  each  locality 
to  appeal  to  the  peculiar  local  prejudice,  and  to 


ELECTION   OF   GENERAL   HARRISON.  147 

represent  their  candidates  to  be  for  or  against  each 
measure  of  Government,  according  as  it  was  popu- 
lar or  unpopular  in  that  particular  neighborhood. 
The  cry  of  change  in  the  Government  was  the 
great  rallying  point,  and  the  consequence  was  that 
Harrison  and  Tyler  carried  a  majority  in  all  the 
States  of  the  Union  except  six,  one  Northern  and 
five  Southern. 

General  Harrison  died  at  the  end  of  one  month 
from  the  day  of  his  inauguration,  and  Mr.  Tyler 
took  the  oath  and  assumed  the  duties  of  the  office 
of  President.  lie  immediately  issued  his  procla- 
mation for  a  special  session  of  Congress,  and  invited 
the  Cabinet  of  General  Harrison  all  to  retain  their 
places  as  his  Cabinet.  When  Congress  assembled 
Mr.  Clay  assumed  the  leadership  of  the  party,  and 
arraigned  the  Democratic  party  as  responsible  for 
the  evils  which  had  befallen  the  country,  and  held 
them  up  as  condemned  criminals,  with  halters 
around  their  necks,  ready  to  be  led  out  to  exe- 
cution. His  programme  of  measures  for  the  new 
administration  was  the  same  that  he  had  advocated 
as  a  member  of  Mr.  Adams's  administration,  and  as 
the  leader  of  the  National  Republican  or  opposition 
party  under  the  first  term  of  General  Jackson,  and 
of  the  Whig  opposition  party  during  the  second 


-148     TYLER'S  SUCCESSION  AND  ADMINISTRATION. 

term  of  General  Jackson  and  the  one  term  of  Mr. 
Yan  Buren's  administration,  to  wit :  A  National 
Bank,  in  the  place  of  the  Sub-Treasury  ;  a  high  pro- 
tective tariff,  in  the  place  of  his  own  compromise 
tariff  of  1832  ;  and  a  system  of  internal  improve- 
ments by  the  Federal  Government.  The  Sub- 
Treasury  was  repealed,  and  a  protective  tariff 
passed.  The  latter  was  approved  by  President  Ty- 
ler ;  but  when  they  presented  to  him  the  bill  char- 
tering the  Bank  of  the  United  States  for  his  ap- 
proval, he  returned  it  with  a  veto  message,  giving 
his  reasons  for  not  signing  it,  upon  the  ground  of 
want  of  power  in  Congress  to  pass  the  law,  and  re- 
ferred to  his  votes  and  speeches  and  reports  in  Con- 
gress, and,  in  short,  to  his  whole  political  life,  to 
show  that  he  had  always  been  opposed  to  a  United 
States  Bank,  and  was  irrevocably  committed  against 
its  constitutionality. 

Mr.  Clay  immediately  denounced  Mr.  Tyler  as 
a  traitor  to  the  Whig  party  and  as  false  to  those  by 
whom  he  had  been  elected,  and  called  upon  the 
party  throughout  the  country,  and  in  both  Houses 
of  Congress,  to  withdraw  their  confidence,  and  to 
make  war  upon  his  administration.  The  leaders  of 
the  Democratic  party,  while  they  approved  Mr. 
Tyler's  veto  of  the  bank,  and  sustained  him  in  that 


THE   TEXAS    QUESTION.  149 

I 

one  measure,  withheld  their  support  and  counte- 
nance from  his  administration,  and  left  him  without 
any  party  to  rely  upon  for  support,  except  five  or 
six  members  of  the  House,  headed  by  Henry  A. 
Wise  and  Caleb  Gushing,  who  were  known  as  the 
"  Corporal's  Guard."  All  of  the  cabinet  resigned 
instantly,  with  the  exception  of  the  Secretary  of 
State,  Mr.  Webster,  who  continued  to  administer  his 
department.  When  the  annexation  of  Texas  was 
urged  by  Mr.  Tyler,  Mr.  Webster  resigned,  and  Mr. 
Upshur,  of  Virginia,  became  Secretary  of  State ;  and 
upon  the  explosion  on  board  of  the  steamer  Princeton, 
by  which  Judge  Upshur  was  killed,  Mr.  Calhoun  was 
appointed  Secretary  of  State,  and  negotiated  the 
treaty  with  Texas  for  the  annexation  of  that  Repub- 
lic to  the  United  States,  which  treaty  was  rejected 
by  the  Senate  by  a  union  of  the  leaders  of  both 
parties,  more  in  consequence  of  hostility  to  Mr. 
Tyler  and  Mr.  Calhoun,  and  to  deprive  them  of  the 
credit  of  the  measure,  than  of  any  well-founded 
opposition  to  the  measure  itself. 

Upon  the  rejection  of  this  treaty,  the  young  men 
of  the  Democratic  party,  in  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, who  did  not  participate  in  the  intensity 
of  the  prejudice  against  Mr.  Tyler,  took  up  the 
measure  and  passed  a  joint  resolution  for  the  annex- 


150  THE   TEXAS    QUESTION. 

ation  of  Texas.  Under  that  form  the  measure 
passed  both  Houses  of  Congress,  and  was  approved 
by  Mr.  Tyler  only  one  or  two  days  previous  to  the 
inauguration  of  President  Polk.  Texas  accepted 
the  propositions  contained  in  the  joint  resolution  for 
annexation,  and  in  December,  1845,  was  admitted 
into  the  Union  on  an  equal  footing  with  the  original 
States. 

The  Texas  question,  thus  sprung  upon  the  coun- 
try by  Mr.  Tyler's  administration,  was  the  con- 
trolling element  in  the  Presidential  election  of  1844. 
The  Whig  party  assembled  in  convention  at  Balti- 
more early  in  May  of  that  year,  and  nominated 
Henry  Clay  as  their  candidate  for  President.  The 
delegates  had  already  been  elected  by  the  con- 
ventions in  the  several  States  to  the  Democratic 
National  Convention  at  Baltimore,  in  June,  1844,  a 
large  majority,  and  in  fact  nearly  all  of  them, 
pledged  and  instructed  to  vote  for  the  nomination 
of  Mr.  Yan  Buren,  as  the  Democratic  candidate. 
Mr.  Clay  and  Mr.  Yan  Buren  had,  for  months 
previous  to  the  assembling  of  either  convention, 
been  universally  regarded  as  the  chosen  candidates 
of  their  respective  parties,  and  no  other  candidates 
had  been  thought  of  by  either  party,  until  Mr. 
Tyler  threw  this  Texas  fire-brand  or  bomb-shell 


PRESIDENTIAL   ELECTION   OF   1844.  151 

into  their  midst.  Mr.  Clay  and  Mr.  Van  Buren 
each  was  confident  that  he  could  beat  the  other,  on 
the  old  issues  which  divided  the  two  parties,  and 
were  alike  afraid  to  take  either  side  of  the  Texas 
question,  for  fear  of  giving  the  other  the  advantage. 
Mr.  Clay  had  been  spending  the  winter  with  his 
friend  Dr.  Mercer  in  New  Orleans,  and  in  the 
months  of  March  and  April  made  a  tour  through 
the  Southern  States,  on  his  way  to  Washington  and 
Baltimore,  to  attend  the  "Whig  National  Convention. 
When  he  arrived  at  Raleigh,  in  North  Carolina,  he 
remained  a  few  days,  where  he  was  met  by  Mr. 
Crittenden  and  other  friends  from  Washington,  who 
it  was  understood  and  believed  bore  assurances 
from  Silas  Wright  and  Mr.  Benton,  in  behalf  of  Mr. 
Van  Buren,  that  if  he,  Mr.  Clay,  would  take  moder- 
ate grounds  against  the  annexation  of  Texas,  and 
especially  would' ignore  it  in  the  approaching  Presi- 
dential election,  he,  Mr.  Van  Buren,  in  behalf  of  the 
Democratic  party,  and  already  regarded  as  virtually 
the  nominee,  would  do  the  same  thing,  and  thus  the 
leaders  of  the  two  great  parties  would  crush  out 
Tylerism  and  Calhounism,  by  ignoring  the  Texas 
question,  and  having  a  fair  fight  upon  the  old  issues 
of  their  respective  parties.  Accordingly,  Mr.  Clay 
published  at  Raleigh  his  celebrated  letter  upon  the 


152  PRESIDENTIAL    ELECTION   OF   1844. 

annexation  of  Texas,  and  a  few  days  afterwards  Mr. 
Van  Buren  published  at  Kinderhook  a  similar  letter 
upon  the  same  question.  While  Mr.  Clay  had  suffi- 
cient control  over  the  Whig  party  to  induce  them 
to  accept  the  issue  which  he  had  made,  Mr.  Yan 
Bureu's  letter  created  a  general  revolt  in  the  Demo- 
cratic ranks.  In  Virginia,  the  State  central  com- 
mittee was  immediately  assembled,  and  released  the 
delegates  from  that  State  from  their  instructions 
to  support  Mr.  Yan  Buren,  there  not  being  time 
to  call  a  State  convention  for  that  purpose.  The 
example  of  Yirginia  was  followed  in  other  States, 
wherever  there  was  time  to  act,  and  public  meetings 
were  called  throughout  the  country,  denouncing  the 
position  of  Mr.  Yan  Buren  on  the  Texas  question, 
and  demanding  the  nomination  of  some  new  man 
who  was  pledged  to  that  measure.  JSTew  candidates 
came  into  the  field,  springing  up  on  all  sides,  ready 
to  pledge  themselves  to  the  annexation  of  Texas, 
and  joined  in  the  general  cry  against  Yan  Buren, 
each  supposing  that  he  would  get  the  nomination, 
if  by  their  joint  efforts  they  could  defeat  Yan 
Buren's  nomination.  When  the  Democratic  Na- 
tional Convention  assembled  at  Baltimore,  it  was 
ascertained  that  there  was  still  a  majority  of  the 
delegates  who  considered  themselves  bound  in  honor 


THE   TWO-THIRDS   KULE.  153 

by  their  instructions  to  vote  for  the  nomination  of 
Mr.  Yan  Buren,  a  large  number  of  whom  were, 

.  however,  reluctant  to  give  the  vote,  from  the  con- 
viction that  his  nomination  would  inevitably  result 
in  the  defeat  of  the  party.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
peculiar  friends  of  Mr.  Yan  Buren,  who  comprised 

'  nearly  one-half  of  the  delegates,  insisted  upon  his 
nomination,  and  declared  openly  that  they  preferred 
defeat  with  him  to  success  with  any  other  living 
man.  In  this  state  of  the  case,  those  who  felt  bound 
to  vote  for  Mr.  Yan  Buren's  nomination,  but  who 
were  anxious  that  he  should  not  be  nominated,  from 
the  fear  that  it  would  result  in  the  defeat  of.  the 
party,  joined  with  his  open  enemies  in  the  readop- 
tion  of  an  old  rule  which  had  prevailed  in  the  pre- 
vious conventions,  requiring  two-thirds  of  all  the 
votes  to  constitute  a  nomination,  and  the  two-thirds 
rule  was  adopted.  Mr.  Yan  Buren  received  a  ma- 
jority of  the  votes  on  several  ballots,  but  less  than 
two-thirds,  when  his  vote  became  less  and  less,  until 
he  was  withdrawn  ;  when  his  friends,  with  a  view  of 
defeating  the  nomination  of  General  Cass,  who  was 
the  strongest  candidate  against  him,  and  whom  they 
regarded  as  the  chief  instrument  in  organizing  the 
opposition  to  him,  presented  the  name  of  James  K. 
Polk,  of  Tennessee,  having  a  letter  already  in  their 


154:  ELECTION   OF   ME.    POLK. 

possession,  committing  him  to  the  annexation  of 
Texas.  Mr.  Polk  was  nominated  by  a  large  majority, 
by  a  union  of  a  portion  of  the  friends  of  Texas  with 
the  Yan  Buren  men. 

The  nomination  of  Mr.  Polk,  with  his  known 
position  in  favor  of  the  annexation  of  Texas,  and 
also  in  favor  of  firm,  high  ground  against  the  pre- 
tensions of  England  in  the  Oregon  question,  made 
these  two  the  leading  issues  in  the  election,  and  en- 
abled him  to  defeat  Mr.  Clay. 

The  annexation  of  Texas  during  Mr.  Polk's  ad- 
ministration resulted  in  the  Mexican  war,  the  re- 
adoption  of  the  Sub-Treasury,  and  the  enactment  of 
a  revenue  tariff',  in  place  of  the  protective  tariff" 
of  1842.  During  the  war,  however,  and  when  he 
asked  for  an  appropriation  of  money  to  enable  him 
to  pay  the  first  installment  for  any  territory  which 
he  might  acquire  by  a  treaty  of  peace,  the  Wilmot 
Proviso,  prohibiting  slavery  in  the  territory  to  be 
acquired,  was  suddenly  sprung  upon  the  House  and 
the  country,  by  the  peculiar  friends  of  Mr.  Yan 
Buren,  who  had  become  very  hostile  to  Mr.  Polk,  in 
consequence  of  his  appointing  Governor  Marcy  into 
his  Cabinet,  as  the  representative  of  the  anti-Yan 
Buren  wing  of  the  party  in  New  York,  and  now 


DIVISION   IN   THE   NEW   YORK  DEMOCKACY.       155 

took  this  course  for  the  purpose  of  embarrassing 
him  and  of  crippling  his  administration. 

As  the  time  approached  for  the  assembling  of  the 
National  Convention  at  Baltimore,  in  the  spring  of 
1848,  to  nominate  the  Democratic  candidates  for 
President  and  Vice-President,  the  contest  became 
very  fierce  in  the  Democratic  party  in  regard  to  the 
Wilmot  Proviso;  and  two  sets  of  delegates  made 
their  appearance  at  Baltimore  from  the  State  of 
New  York,  each  claiming  to  be  the  true  representa- 
tives of  the  party,  the  one  supporting  and  the  other 
opposing  the  proviso.  The  Convention  sympathized 
with  the  delegates  who  were  opposed  to  the  Wilmot 
Proviso,  but,  under  the  impression  that  the  others 
had  the  regular  organization  of  the  party,  declined 
to  decide  upon  their  respective  claims,  and  passed  a 
resolution  for  the  admission  of  both  sets  of  delegates, 
who  should  jointly,  and  in  such  a  manner  as  they 
might  agree  upon  among  themselves,  cast  the  thirty- 
six  votes  for  the  State  of  New  York.  The  "Wilmot 
Proviso  Yan  Buren  delegates,  however,  refused  to 
accede  to  this  proposition,  and  declined  to  take  seats 
in  the  Convention,  upon  the  ground  that  they  were 
the  regularly  appointed  delegates,  and  had  a  right 
to  cast  the  entire  vote  of  the  State. 

General  Cass,  of  Michigan,  was  nominated  for 


156  PRESIDENTIAL   ELECTION   OF   1848. 

President,  and  William  O.  Butler,  of  Kentucky,  for 
Vice-President ;  and  when  the  Wilmot  Proviso  dele- 
gates returned  home  to  New  York,  they  immedi- 
ately issued  a  call  for  a  State  Convention  of  their 
followers,  or  wing  of  the  party,  to  assemble  at  Her- 
kimer,  at  which  Convention  it  was  resolved  to  call 
a  Convention  of  all  the  opponents  to  the  extension 
of  slavery,  at  Buffalo,  in  the  month  of  August  of 
that  year.  At  the  Buffalo  Convention,  composed 
of  delegates  from  all  the  free  States,  Mr.  Van  Buren 
was  nominated  for  President,  and  Charles  Francis 
Adams  for  Yice-President.  The  Whigs  nominated 
Taylor  and  Fillmore,  haying  no  platform,  and  leav- 
ing each  State  Convention  to  make  their  own.  In 
consequence  of  the  division  of  the  Democratic  party 
in  the  State  of  New  York  into  two  equal  parts,  be- 
tween Yan  Buren  and  Cass,  General  Taylor  received 
the  electoral  vote  of  that  State,  and  was  elected 
President  of  the  United  States. 

When  the  division  in  the  New  York  Democracy 
arose,  they  were  first  called  "  Hunkers  "  and  "  Barn- 
burners." The  former  were  national  men,  the  latter 
Wilmot  Proviso  men.  Subsequently  a  compromise 
was  made  between  the  Hunkers  and  Barnburners, 
by  which  the  party  was  reunited,  and  the  electoral 
vote  of  the  State  given  to  General  Pierce  in  1852  ; 


THE   NEW   YOKE  DEMOCEACY.  157 

but  in  consequence  of  the  removal  of  Judge  Bron- 
son  from  the  office  of  Collector  of  the  Port  of  New 
York,  by  Mr.  Pierce's  administration,  the  old  con- 
troversy was  reopened^  and  when  the  old  "  Hunk- 
ers," under  the  lead  of  Daniel  S.  Dickinson,  with- 
drew from  the  regular  organization,  and  denounced 
Mr.  Pierce's  administration,  Governor  Marcy,  who 
was  Secretary  of  State  under  Mr.  Pierce,  and  was 
the  leader  of  the  old  "  Hunker  "  party  during  the 
Wilmot  Proviso  controversy  under  Mr.  Polk's  ad- 
ministration, together  with  Governor  Seymour  and 
other  "  Hunkers,"  remained  with  the  regular  or- 
ganization of  the  party,  and  sustained  Mr.  Pierce. 
From  this  time  Marcy  and  his  "Hunker"  friends, 
who  had  become  identified  with  the  "  Barnburners," 
were  called  the  "Softs,"  and  Dickinson  and  his 
party  of  bolters  assumed  the  name  of  the  "  Hards." 


THE  TAKIFF. 

CLAY  and  Webster  were  leading  protective  tariff 
men. 

In  1816  or  1817  Webster  was  the  champion  of 
free  trade.  Commerce  was  then  the  leading  interest 
of  his  constituency.  But  all  this  changed,  and 
manufactures  began  largely  to  employ  the  labor 
and  the  capital  of  New  England.  Then  Webster 
becajne  a  protectionist.  On  the  other  hand,  in  1816 
and  181 Y,  Calhoun  was  the  champion  of  protection  ; 
and  when  Webster  became  a  protectionist,  Calhoun 
became  &free  trader. 

Henry  Clay  was  throughout  always  a  protec- 
tionist. 

This  question  of  a  protective  tariff  has  been  ar- 
gued more  upon  grounds  of  its  expediency  and  jus- 
tice than  of  its  constitutionality.  Nobody  even  ar- 
gued that  the  Supreme  Court  would  have  declared 
it  unconstitutional.  The  Court  would  have  said  it 


THE   TARIFF.  159 

was  a  political  question,  which  the  Government 
must  determine,  and  would  not  have  annulled  it. 
It  would  have  said  the  political  department  had 
determined  the  question,  and  Government  must 
have  the  choice  of  means. 

The  clause  of  the  Constitution  which  authorizes 
Congress  "  to  make  all  laws  which  shall  be  necessary 
and  proper  for  carrying  into  execution  the  foregoing 
powers,"  confers  no  power,  but  is  declaratory  of  a 
rule  of  construction  which  would  have  been  implied 
if  it  had  not  been  specified,  and  is  the  best  rule  of 
construction.  The  means  must  be  necessary,  but 
need  not  be  indispensable — proper,  but  not  the  only 
proper  ones;  and  the  discretion  in  choosing  the 
means,  where  there  are  a  variety  of  means,  is  vested 
within  the  scope  of  the  Constitution,  in  the  political 
department  of  the  Government. 

The  argument  of  the  Democrats  upon  the  tariff 
question  has  been,  that  the  Government  is  limited 
to  the  powers  delegated  by  the  Constitution,  and 
that  those  powers  must  be  executed  for  the  purposes 
of  the  Constitution ;  and  that  while  the  Government 
has  the  right  to  tax  imports  for  the  purposes  of 
revenue,  it  has  not  for  the  purpose  of  protection.. 

The  argument  on  the  other  side  is,  that  while  it 
imposes  taxes  on  imports  for  revenue,  it  may  do  it 


160  THE   TARIFF. 

in  such  a  manner  as  to  protect  domestic  manufac- 
tures; for  example,  tax  high  the  foreign  manu- 
factured article,  and  admit  free,  or  with  a  small 
tax,  the  materials  of  which  that  article  is  composed, 
so  as  to  be  manufactured  in  this  country.  The 
Democrats  say  this  is  an  abuse  of  the  power.  The 
present  tariff  is,  however,  incidentally  protective. 
The  tariff  question  has  ceased  to  be  a  political  issue, 
there  being  men  in  both  parties,  and  in  all  parts  of 
the  country,  who  take  different  views  and  stand  upon 
both  sides. 


THE  PUBLIC  LAND  SYSTEM  OF  THE 
UNITED  STATES. 

THE  foundation  of  the  present  system  was  laid 
about  the  time  the  Constitution  was  adopted.  It 
consists  of  a  system  of  surveys,  by  which  the  public 
lands  are  first  laid  out  into  townships,  six  miles 
square ;  each  township  is  subdivided  into  sections  of 
one  mile  square,  so  that  there  are  thirty-six  sections 
in  a  township ;  each  section  is  subdivided  into  four 
quarters,  each  one-half  mile  square ;  each  quarter 
section  is  divided  into  two  eighty  acre  tracts,  which 
are  called  half  quarters,  and  are  designated  respec- 
tively as  the  east  and  west  half  of  the  northeast, 
northwest,  southeast,  or  southwest  quarter,  and  each 
eighty  acre  tract  is  again  divided  into  two  forty 
acre  tracts.  The  following  figure  will  illustrate  : 

In  this  figure,  A  B  represents  the  base  line,  and 
C  D  the  meridian.  The  meridians  are  all  numbered. 
The  one  chosen  for  illustration  is  in  Illinois,  and  is 

the  third  principal  meridian. 
11 


162 


THE   PUBLIC   LAND   SYSTEM. 


The  figure  represents  a  district  of  country  divided 
into  townships.     A  township  must  lie  north  or  south 


of  the  base  line  A  B,  and  east  or  west  of  the  merid- 
ian (third  principal)  0  D. 

O.  M.  1ST.  P.  would  therefore  be  described  as 
township  1,  north  1,  east  1,  of  the  third  principal 
meridian;  or,  T.  1,  N".  1,  E.  1,  3  P.  M. 


THE   PUBLIC   LAND   SYSTEM. 


163 


Figure  2  represents  a  township  divided  into 
sections.  They  commence  by  numbering  the  sec- 
tions at  the  northeast  corner  of  each  township.  Sup- 


Fig.  2. 

NORTH 

A 

EA 

6 

5 

4- 

3 

2 

/ 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12. 

18 

17 

IB 

IS 

/4 

/3 

19 

20 

21 

2Z 

23 

2k 

30 

29 

28 

27 

26 

2J- 

3/ 

32 

33 

3£ 

25 

36 

C  SOUTH  D 

pose  this  figure  to  represent  township  I,  N".  1,  E.  1, 
3  P.  M.,  and  that  we  wish  to  describe  section  thirty- 
five.  It  would  be  section  thirty-five,  township  1, 
north  1,  east  1,  3  P.  M. 

Formerly  only  one  section  in  each  township  was 
given  for  school  purposes,  and  this  was  section  six- 
teen. Since  the  admission  of  Minnesota  two  sec- 
tions in  each  township  are  given,  and  these  are 


164 


THE   PUBLIC   LAJSTD   SYSTEM. 


NORTH 


sections  sixteen  and  thirty-six.     I  introduced  this 

improvement. 

Figure  three  represents  a  section  subdivided  into 
quarters,  which  are  the 
K  E.,  S.  E.,  N.  W.,  and 
S.  W.  quarters  of  the  sec- 
tion respectively.  Sup- 
pose it  to  represent  sec- 
tion one,  township  one, 

north  one,  east  one,  third 
SOUTH  .     .  .... 

principal  meridian,    and 

you  wish  to  describe  the  northeast  quarter.    It  would 
be  N.  E.  i,  S.  1,  T.  1,  K  1,  E.  1,  3  P.  M. 


WEST 


EAST 


Fig.  4. 


a 

EAST 

c 

Wesr 


EAST 


D         SOUTH          C 


Figure  four  represents  the  same  northeast 
quarter  of  same  section,  or.  any  other  quarter  and 
section  divided  into  eighty  acre  tracts,  which  are 


THE   PUBLIC   LAND   SYSTEM.  165 

designated  as  the  east  and  west  half  of  the  north- 
east quarter,  section  one,  and  so  on. 

Figure  five  represents  the  same  northeast  quarter 
same  section,  or  any  other,  divided  into  forty-eight 
tracts,  or  quarters  of  a  quarter,  and  would  be 
described  as  the  N".  E.  -J  of  the  K.  E.  J,  and  so  on. 

This  is  the  perfected  system. 

The  first  step  is  the  extinguishment  of  the  Indian 
title  by  a  treaty  with  the  Indian  tribe  owning  the 
possessory  right,  and  which,  like  all  other  treaties, 
must  be  ratified  by  two-thirds  of  the  Senate.  The 
next  step  is  the  survey  of  the  land  according  to  the 
system  above  described. 

According  to  the  existing  laws,  there  is  a  pre- 
emption right  given  to  the  settlers  upon  the  lands. 
By  the  preemption  law  of  1841,  and  its  subsequent 
amendments,  a  person  may  go  and  settle  upon  any 
lands  to  which  the  Indian  title  has  been  extinguished, 
erect  his  house,  enclose  a  portion  of  the  land,  and 
cultivate  the  same.  By  making  proof  of  these  facts, 
residence,  cultivation,  and  enclosure,  before  the  land 
officers  of  the  proper  district,  prior  to  the  day  of  sale, 
the  preemptor  becomes  entitled  to  buy  the  tract 
upon  which  he  resides,  and  upon  which  his  improve- 
ments are  located,  not  exceeding  one  quarter  section, 
or  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres,  at  one  dollar  and 


166  THE   PUBLIC   LAND   SYSTEM. 

twenty-five  cents  per  acre,  which  is  the  minimum 
price  at  which  the  lands  are  sold. 

After  the  surveys  are  completed,  Congress  pro- 
vides by  law  that  all  the  lands  situated  within  the 
following  limits,  describing  them,  shall  constitute  a 
land  district,  by  the  following  name  or  number, 
designating  the  district,  and  that  there  shall  be  a 
laud  office  established  therein,  for  the  sale  of  the 
public  lands  within  said  district,  and  that  the  Presi- 
dent shall  appoint,  by  and  with  the  advice  and  con- 
sent of  the  Senate,  a  Register  and  Receiver  for  said 
land  office.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  Register  to  keep 
the  records  and  plans  of  survey  of  all  the  lands 
within  the  district,  and  of  the  Receiver  to  receive 
all  moneys  in  payment  of  lands  sold  by  the  Register. 

Before  any  of  the  lands  are  allowed'  to  be  sold 
at  private  sale,  the  President  of  the  United  States 
issues  his  proclamation,  designating  some  future 
day,  usually  from  three  to  six  months  distant,  at 
which  all  or  a  portion  of  the  lands  within  said  dis- 
trict will  be  offered  at  public  auction,  describing  the 
lands  in  the  proclamation  by  their  numbers,  and 
giving  notice  that,  before  the  day  of  sale,  all  persons 
claiming  preemption  on  any  of  said  lands  will  be 
required  to  appear  at  the  land  office  and  make  the 
requisite  proofs  in  support  of  their  claims,  and  to 


THE   PUBLIC   LAND   SYSTEM.  167 

pay  the  money  for  the  same,  otherwise  they  will  be 
sold  at  auction  the  same  as  the  other  lands.  When 
the  day  of  sale  arrives,  the  Register  of  the  land 
office,  with  the  maps  before  him,  puts  up  each  tract 
at  auction,  beginning  with  the  east  half  of  the 
northeast  quarter  of  section  one,  in  the  township, 
and  thus  exposing  in  their  order  each  eighty  acre 
tract  or  half  quarter  section  to  the  highest  bidder, 
receiving  no  bid  less  than  one  dollar  and  a  quarter 
per  acre,  and  striking  off  the  tract  to  the  highest 
bidders.  When  the  sales  of  the  day  shall  have 
closed,  a  certificate  is  made  out  to  each  purchaser, 
describing  the  tract  purchased  by  him,  by  its  num- 
ber and  description,  according  to  the  system  already 
explained.  The  purchaser  presents  this  certificate 
to  the  Receiver  as  the  evidence  that  he  is  entitled  to 
that  tract  of  land  upon  the  payment  of  the  money. 
The  Receiver  receives  the  money,  and  takes  up  the 
certificate,  and  gives  the  purchaser  a  receipt  certify- 
ing that  he  has  paid  the  money  for  the  land  therein 
described,  and  stating  the  number  of  acres  in  the 
tract,  the  amount  paid,  and  the  rate  per  acre.  This 
receipt  is  called  a  duplicate,  for  the  reason  that  the 
Receiver  makes  out  two  at  the  same  time,  the  other 
of  which  is  forwarded  to  the  United  States  land 
office  at  Washington,  and  upon  which  a  patent 


168  THE   PUBLIC   LAND   SYSTEM. 

issues  to  the  purchaser,  over  the  signature  of  the 
President  and  the  seal  of  the  United  States,  written 
on  parchment,  which  becomes  the  title  deed  of  the 
land. 

When  any  tract  of  land  is  thus  oifered  by  the 
Eegister,  and  nobody  present  bids  one  dollar  and  a 
quarter  per  acre,  the  tract  is  struck  off  to  the  United 
States,  and  the  next  tract  is  oifered  in  its  order. 
The  sales  continue  in  this  manner  from  day  to  day, 
until  all  the  lands  specified  in  the  President's 
proclamation  have  been  offered  for  sale,  when  the 
sale  is  declared  to  be  closed,  and  all  further  business 
in  the  office  is  suspended  for  a  certain  number  of 
days,  to  enable  the  land  officers  to  make  up  their 
records,  and  transmit  their  returns  of  sales  in  due 
form  to  the  General  Land  Office ;  which  being  done, 
the  land  office,  upon  proper  notice  by  the  Register, 
is  again  opened,  and  all  the  lands  are  exposed  from 
that  time  to  private  sale,  with  the  privilege  on  the 
part  of  any  person  who  wishes  to  purchase,  to  do  so 
by  applying  to  the  Eegister  for  a  certificate  to  the 
Receiver  for  any  tract  or  tracts  he  may  select,  at 
one  dollar  and  a  quarter  per  acre,  the  minimum 
price  fixed  ;  and  upon  delivering  that  certificate  to 
the  Receiver,  and  paying  his  money,  he  receives  his 
duplicate,  as  in  the  case  of  a  sale  made  at  public 


THE   PUBLIC   LAND   SYSTEM.  169 

auction.  But  in  case  two  or  more  persons  apply  to 
the  Register  cut  the  same  time,  and  for  the  same  tract 
of  land,  the  Register  receives  bids  from  each  in  the 
presence  of  the  others,  and  issues  his  certificate  to  the 
highest  bidder,  specifying  the  rate  per  acre,  the 
number  of  acres,  and  the  amount  of  money  to  be 
paid. 

Prior  to  1820  the  public  lands  were  sold  on  a 
credit  of  one,  two,  three,  four,  and  five  years,  at  two 
dollars  per  acre,  and  that  fact  gave  rise  to  the  pro- 
vision in  the  compacts  between  the  United  States, 
and  the  States  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  and 
Louisiana,  and  in  short  all  the  States  admitted  into 
the  Union  previous  to  1820,  by  which  each  of  said 
States  pledged  their  faith,  in  consideration  of  certain 
grants  of  land  for  schools  and  internal  improve- 
ments, not  to  tax  the  lands  of  the  United  States 
within  their  respective  limits  for  the  period  of  five 
years  after  the  date  of  sale.  The  object  of  this  stipu- 
lation was  to  prevent  any  person  from  obtaining  a 
tax  title  under  the  authority  of  the  State,  before 
the  United  States  had  received  the  full  amount  of 
the  purchase  money. 

The  credit  system,  for  the  sale  of  the  public 
lands,  produced  the  most  ruinous  consequences  in 
stimulating  speculation  and  inducing  people  to  pur- 


170  THE   PUBLIC   LAND   SYSTEM. 

chase  vast  quantities,  for  which  they  were  not  able 
to  make  payments  in  cases  of  pecuniary  revulsions. 
This  was  partly  the  case  in  1817-'18,  and  1819,  when 
the  settlers  upon  the  public  lands,  and  others  who 
were  speculating  in  them,  found  themselves  indebted 
to  the  United  States  for  many  millions  of  dollars 
which  they  were  unable  to  pay,  and  being  unwilling 
to  forfeit  the  installments  which  they  had  paid,  they 
petitioned  Congress  for  relief,  and  a  compromise,  by 
which  they  might  be  permitted  to  receive  a  quantity 
of  the  land  purchased  equal  to  the  payments  they 
had  made,  and  be  released  from  the  remainder,  was 
asked  for.  The  relief  was  granted,  and  the  land 
system  was  changed  so  far  as  to  abolish  the  credit 
system  entirely,  and  to  reduce  the  price  from  $2  to 
$1.25  per  acre. 

A  few  years  ago  Congress  passed  an  act  known 
as  the  "  Graduation  Bill,"  to  the  effect  that  all  lands 
which  had  been  offered  at  public  sale,  and  remained 
unsold  at  private  sale  for  the  period  often  years,  should 
be  reduced  in  price  to  one  dollar  per  acre  ;  over  ten 
years  and  less  than  fifteen,  seventy-five  cents ;  over 
fifteen  and  less  than  twenty,  fifty  cents ;  over  twenty 
and  less  than  twenty-five,  twenty-five  cents ;  and 
over  twenty-five  years,  twelve  and  a  half  cents  per 
acre,  provided  that  no  person  was  permitted  to  enter 


THE   PUBLIC   LAND   SYSTEM.  171 

any  land  at  these  reduced  prices,  unless  lie  was  an 
actual  settler  upon  the  same,  and  should  make  oath 
that  he  purchased  the  same  for  his  own  use  and  cul- 
tivation, or  that  the  lands  were  adjoining  the  farm 
upon  which  he  did  reside,  and  that  the  purchase 
was  made  for  the  purpose  of  enlarging  his  farm  and 
for  his  own  use,  and  not  to  be  transferred  to  another ; 
and  that  in  no  case  should  any  one  person  purchase 
more  than  one  quarter  section  at  the  reduced  prices. 
Under  this  law  the  most  shameful  abuses  were  per- 
petrated by  men  making  false  oaths,  entering  vast 
tracts  of  lands,  in  some  instances  in  the  names  of 
their  infant  children  and  grandchildren  not  even 
three  weeks  old,  oftentimes  by  connivance  of  the 
public  officers,  and  by  hiring  persons  to  enter  lands 
in  different  districts. 

By  reference  to  the  compacts  between  the  United 
States  and  the  several  new  States  admitted  into  the 
Union,  it  will  be  observed  that  the  section  numbered 
sixteen  in  each  township  throughout  the  entire  State 
has  been  granted  for  the  purpose  of  public  schools ; 
seventy-two  sections,  equal  to  two  entire  townships, 
for  the  purpose  of  establishing  a  State  University, 
and  five  per  cent,  of  the  gross  proceeds  of  all  the 
sales  of  the  public  lands  within  such  State,  together 
with  all  the  salt  springs,  not  exceeding  twelve  in 


1V2  THE   PUBLIC   LAND   SYSTEM. 

number,  and  one  section  to  each,  were  granted  to 
the  State  for  the  purposes  of  education  and  internal 
improvements,  which  grant  was  deemed  and  held 
to  be  in  consideration  of  the  surrender  by  such  State 
of  any  equitable  claim  it  might  have  to  tax  the  lands 
and  property  of  the  United  States  within  their  limits. 
Some  thirty  years  ago  Congress  granted  to  Ohio, 
Indiana,  and  Illinois,  the  alternate  sections  for  five 
miles  on  each  side  of  the  lines  of  certain  canals, 
which  said  States  proposed  to  make,  to  aid  in  their 
construction.  No  other  reason  seems  to  have  actu- 
ated or  induced  the  action  of  Congress  in  these  cases, 
except  to  aid  those  States  in  the  construction  of  their 
works.  In  1850  a  Senator  from  Illinois  introduced 
a  bill  granting  to  that  State  the  alternate  sections 
for  six  miles  on  each  side  of  the  line  of  the  Illinois 
Central  Railroad  and  its  branches,  on  condition  that 
the  said  State  should  make  or  cause  said  railroad  to 
be  made,  within  ten  years  from  the  date  of  the  grant, 
and  that  the  United  States  mails  should  be  forever 
transported  on  the  same,  under  the  direction  of  the 
Post-office  Department,  at  a  fair  compensation  ;  and 
in  the  event  of  a  disagreement  Congress  should  fix 
the  same ;  and  on  the  further  condition  that  the  other 
alternate  sections  should  be  sold  at  $2.50  per  acre, 
so  as  to  enable  the  United  States  to  receive  for  the 


THE   PUBLIC   LAND   SYSTEM.  IT'S 

reserved  half  as  much  as  they  claimed  for  the  whole, 
and  which  thirty  years'  experience  had  shown  that 
she  could  not  get  for  the  whole — these  lands  hav- 
ing been  in  the  market  during  that  period  at  $1.25 
per  acre,  and  remaining  unsold.  The  bill  passed, 
and  the  State  granted  the  lands  to  the  Illinois  Cen- 
tral Railroad  Company,  on  condition  that  the  com- 
pany would  complete  the  road  within  six  years  in- 
stead of  ten,  and  forever  comply  with  the  terms  and 
conditions  of  the  act  of  Congress  in  all  respects. 
The  company  completed  the  road  in  four  years,  and 
the  United  States  sold  all  the  lands  within  a  few 
months  at  prices  ranging  from  $2.50  to  $7.25  per 
acre.  All  the  grants  which  have  been  made  to  other 
States  for  railroads  were  founded  upon  the  same 
principles  as  the  Illinois  case,  ~but  candor  forces  the 
admission  that  the  same  results  have  not  been  pro- 
duced in  any  of  the  other  cases. 


THE  HOMESTEAD   BILL. 

THE  Homestead  Bill,  as  it  is  called,  has  been 
advocated  by  its  friends  upon  the  principle  that  the 
United  States  had  the  power,  under  the  express 
clause  of  the  Constitution,  to  dispose  of  the  public 
lands  for  any  purpose  which  would  promote  the  in- 
terests of  the  United  States,  and  that  those  interests 
would  be  more  advanced  by  granting  a  quarter  sec- 
tion of  land  to  every  citizen  who  would  build  a 
house  upon  it  and  reside  there  with  his  family,  and 
cultivate  a  crop  each  year  for  five  years,  than  by 
keeping  them  out  of  market  waiting  for  a  purchaser, 
and  then  permitting  them  to  go  into  the  hands  of 
speculators  in  vast  quantities,  to  be  held  at  prices 
ranging  from  $10  to  $20  per  acre,  as  is  now  the  case 
with  many  millions  of  acres  in  the  new  States.  My 
own  idea  is  that  the  true  policy  would  be  to  stop  the 
public  sales  altogether,  and  to  grant  the  lands  or  sell 
them  at  advanced  prices  to  actual  settlers  only,  and 


THE   PUBLIC   LAND   SYSTEM.  175 

that  in  quantities  not  exceeding  one  quarter  sec- 
tion. Experience  has  proven  that  wherever  the  lands 
were  surveyed  and  brought  into  market  before  the 
country  was  settled,  the  majority  of  the  lands,  com- 
prising the  timber,  water  privileges,  and  most  val- 
uable portions,  have  been  purchased  by  capitalists 
and  speculators  in  the  old  States,  who  have  imme- 
diately raised  the  price  to  $5  and  $10  per  acre,  and 
waited  until  the  few  scattered  settlers,  by  their  im- 
provements, should  create  demand  and  increase  the 
value  ;  while  in  those  portions  of  the  country  where 
the  Government  failed  to  complete  the  surveys,  and 
bring  the  lands  into  market,  for  several  years  after 
the  Indian  title  was  extinguished,  emigrants  poured 
into  the  country  in  the  mean  time,  and  each  settler 
occupied  one  quarter  section  for  the  use  of  his  own 
family,  and  the  country  became  more  densely  popu- 
lated before  the  lands  were  offered  in  market  than 
those  other  portions  of  the  country  were  in  twenty 
years  after  the  lands  were  sold.  This  fact  accounts 
for  the  denser  population  in  the  southern  counties 
of  Minnesota,  and  in  the  northern  counties  of  Illi- 
nois, as  also  for  the  sparse  settlements  in  a  large  por- 
tion of  Iowa. 

The  public  lands  stand  on  a  different  footing 
from  money  raised  by  taxation,  and  the  discretion 


176  THE   PUBLIC   LAND    SYSTEM. 

of  Congress  only  controls  the  mode  and  manner  of 
their  disposition  ;  but  Congress  is  bound  by  a  moral 
obligation  to  exercise  the  power  for  the  good  of  the 
Union. 

Reverting  to  the  system  of  survey,  I  here  call 
your  attention  to  the  fact  that  all  persons  must  pur- 
chase "  legal  subdivisions. ,"  No  one  can  buy  by  the 
single  acre,  unless  that  happens  to  be  a  legal  sub- 
division— that  is,  a  fractional  quarter  section  con- 
taining only  that  amount. 

Figure  6  is  designed  to  show  what  is  done  with 
the  fractions.  It  represents  part  of  a  township  lying 
on  the  Illinois  River.  It  will  be  observed  that  sec- 
tion 16  is  complete,  and  that  sections  14,  ABC,  15, 
C  B  D  G  H,  22,  H  G  K,  and  21,  G  F  M  1ST  K,  are 
fractional  and  incomplete. 

ABC  not  being  a  fraction  within  any  section, 
constitutes  a  section  by  itself,  and  would  do  so  if  it 
only  contained  a  single  acre,  and  would  be  described 
as  fractional  section  14,  and  so  on.  In  the  same 
figure  we  have  a  similar  fraction,  N  O  P,  which 
does  lie  within  a  section,  and  if  small  in  area,  as  we 
suppose  in  the  present  case,  would  be  added  to  the 
N  E  fractional  quarter,  K  G  S  P,  and  the  whole 
would  be  described  as  the  east  fractional  half  of 
section  21,  and  so  in  any  similar  case. 


THE    PUBLIC    LAND    SYSTEM. 


m 


H  G  K  in  the  figure  is  a  fractional  section. 

If  the  fraction  N  O  P  were  large  enough  to  be 
surveyed,  it  would  then  be  the  S.  E.  fractional  quar- 
ter of  section  21. 

If,  in  the  case  of  B  R  H;  the  smaller  portion  were 


added  to  the  greater,  it  would  be  indicated  by  dots 
(u)  on  its  line,  as  in  the  figure,  and  it  would  be  the 
east  fractional  half  of  section  15  ;  so  also  the  dots 
in  G  S  P  N  O  would  indicate  this  addition  of  the 
smaller  part,  N"  O  P.  These  marks  are  sometimes 
12 


178  THE   PUBLIC   LAND   SYSTEM. 

fraudulently  erased,  or  accidentally  omitted  by  the 
surveyor,  and  great  speculations  are  sometimes  made 
in  these  fractions.  A  case  occurred  some  years  ago 
where  a  man  applied  to  enter  five  or  ten  acres  in 
Cincinnati,  which  were  built  upon,  and  were  im- 
mensely valuable,  and  the  commissioner  refused,  on 
the  ground  that  not  knowing  whether  the  dots  had 
been  there  or  not  he  would  suppose  them  to  be  there, 
and  Congress  subsequently  passed  a  law  confirming 
the  title  of  the  other  proprietors. 

So  also  there  was  a  case  in  Chicago  involving 
the  question  whether  these  dots  were  on  the  line  C 
D  in  figure  7  or  not. 

If  the  dots  (n)  were  on  the  line  C  D,  then  C  E 
F  D  was  included  in  the  fractional  quarter  section, 
section  10,  I  believe ;  so  that  it  was  included  in  the 
entry  and  purchase  made  by  a  man  named  Kinzie 
in  1815  or  1820.  About  18.35  Murray  McConnell, 
being  familiar  with  land  speculations,  came  to  Chi- 
cago, and,  on  looking  over  the  map,  concluded  that 
C  E  F  D  was  not  so  included,  and  he  entered  it. 
The  people  raised  a  mob  and  compelled  him  to  give 
up  his  duplicate,  and  the  land  office  rescinded  the 
entry,  and  Congress  subsequently  passed  a  law  con- 
firming the  Kinzie  title.  The  lots  had  been  sub- 
divided by  him,  running  down  to  the  river  as  in  the 


THE   PUBLIC   LAND   SYSTEM. 


179 


figure.  A  suit  has  now  arisen  between  other  parties 
involving  title,  and  McConnell  steps  forward  and 
claims  it  on  the  ground  that  he  had  entered  it,  and 
of  being  compelled  by  force  to  give  it  up,  that  the 

Fig.  7. 


ffiACT/OWAL 
QUARTER  OP 
SECTION  10. 


land  office  could  not  rescind  the  purchase,  and  that 
the  subsequent  act  of  Congress  divesting  title  was 
unconstitutional,  and  therefore  that  the  land  is  his. 
This  case  involves  the  question  of  the  dots,  and  illus- 
trates to  you  the  speculations  in  fractions. 

The  Illinois  Central  Railroad  case  involves  this 
principle  again,  arising  out  of  the  same  tract  of  land. 
(See  figure  8.) 


180 


THE   PUBLIC   LAND   SYSTEM. 
Fig.  8. 


A 


WNEWMOUTH 


In  the  first  place,  were  these  dots  or  cross  lines 
on  the  line  C  D,  as  in  the  last  case  ? 

The  Chicago  River  formerly  took  a  bend,  leav- 
ing the  sand-bar  F  H.  An  appropriation  being 
made  for  the  improvement  of  the  Chicago  River 
and  harbor,  the  engineer  cut  right  through  this  bar 
as  indicated  above,  and  it  was  subsequently  washed 
away.  M  N  O  P  was  a  military  reservation.  The 


THE   PUBLIC   LAND   SYSTEM.  181 

Illinois  Central  Railroad  brought  their  road  into  the 
city,  in  front  of  Michigan  Avenue,  on  the  lake,  as 
indicated  by  the  dotted  lines,  and  bought  of  the  War 
Department  the  small  tract  M  R  S  P,  so  as  to  secure 
the  water  right,  and  then  built  out,  by  filling  in,  the 
square  R  S  T  V,  on  which  they  located  their  depots, 
and  which  comprises  several  acres,  and  is  worth  two 
millions  of  dollars. 

A  Mr.  Bates  bought  the  portion  D  C  E  F, 
which  would  include  the  sand-bar.  I  advised  the 
railroad  at  the  time  of  this  fact,  but  they  paid  no 
attention  to  it.  The  sand-bar  would  be  included  in 
Mr.  Bates'  purchase.  McConnell  interposes  his 
claim  as  already  explained,  and  in  all  probability  the 
railroad  will  have  to  pay  either  the  one  or  the  other. 

I  have  stated  that  a  man  buys  legal  subdivision, 
but  it  is  to  be  added  that  they  are  subdivisions  ac- 
cording to  the  maps  and  surveys  of  the  United 
States,  which,  though  often  inaccurate,  are  yet 
taken  to  be  true,  and  no  proof  is  admitted  to  the 
contrary.  So  that  a  man  must  buy  according  to 
their  surveys,  and  consequently  pays  for  whatever 
the  maps  show,  and  gets  whatever  there  actually  is, 
whether  more  or  less  than  the  maps  indicate.  The 
following  figure  will  serve  to  show  you  the  inac- 
curacies in  the  surveys : 


182 


THE   PUBLIC   LAND   SYSTEM. 
Fig.  9. 


Suppose,  first,  a  winding  river,  as  they  often  are, 
and  navigable. 

The  surveyor  fixes  upon  A,  as  a  point  from 
which  to  measure  his  actional  line  A  B,  one  mile  in 
length,  divides  at  C,  and  makes  his  survey  as  far 
toward  the  river  as  the  dotted  line,  excluding  the 
other  as  marsh  land,  and  not  worth  any  thing,  and 
calling  it  fifty  acres.  A  man  buys  this  marsh  land, 
and  there  is  in  reality  one  hundred  acres.  He  pays 
for  fifty  and  gets  a  hundred.  Again,  the  river  takes 
a  bend,  and  the  surveyor  imagines  a  line  M  O,  as 
if  it  took  that  direction,  and  calls  M  0  K  P  one 


THE  PUBLIC  LAND  SYSTEM.          183 

hundred  and  fifty  acres,  and  there  are  but  one  hun- 
dred. Generally  speaking,  there  is  more  land  in 
these  fractions  than  the  maps  show. 

A  preemption  right  not  entered  and  paid  up  is 
not  transferable,  or,  in  other  words,  all  transfers  of 
preemption  rights  made  before  the  patent  issues  are 
void.  Good,  of  course,  afterwards. 

BOUNTY  LANDS   GIVEN  TO  SOLDIEKS  AND  SPECULATIONS 
THEREIN. 

After  the  close  of  the  Mexican  war,  Congress 
passed  a  law  granting  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres 
of  land  to  each  volunteer  for  his  military  services, 
in  addition  to  his  pay,  in  the  same  manner  as  Con- 
gress had  previously  done  for  the  soldiers  in  the  war 
of  1812  with  Great  Britain.  Since  the  Mexican 
war  Congress  had  also  made  grants  of  bounty  lands 
to  all  soldiers,  whether  in  the  war  of  1812  or  the 
Mexican  war,  or  any  of  the  Indian  wars,  of  one 
hundred  and  sixty  acres  each,  to  all  who  had  served 
a  certain  length  of  time,  three  months,  as  I  recollect, 
or  of  eighty  acres  for  a  less  period,  which,  I  think, 
extended  to  at  least  fourteen  days.  A  paper  called 
a  land  warrant  was  issued  to  each  soldier,  specify- 
ing the  particular  service  for  which  it  was  issued, 
the  act  of  Congress  authorizing  it,  and  the  amount 


184  THE   PUBLIC   LAND   SYSTEM. 

of  land  to  which  he  was  entitled,  which  warrant  he 
was  at  liberty  to  locate  upon  any  of  the  surveyed 
lands  of  the  United  States  which  had  been  offered 
at  public  sale,  and  still  remained  unsold.  By  a 
subsequent  act  of  Congress  these  land  warrants  were 
made  assignable  by  endorsements  upon  the  back,  ac- 
cording to  the  form  prescribed  by  the  department. 
The  warrants  thus  became  a  subject  of  speculation, 
the  same  as  State  bonds  or  any  other  securities,  and 
were  located  by  the  holder  in  his  own  name,  as  the 
assignee  of  the  soldier,  and  when  presented  at  the 
land  office  were  received  in  payment  for  the  amount 
of  lands  specified  in  the  warrant,  in  lieu  of  money, 
and  the  land  officers  were  required  in  their  reports 
to  specify  each  tract  of  land  thus  paid  for  by  war- 
rant, in  contradistinction  to  the  lands  sold  for  cash. 
These  grants  of  land  proved  of  no  service  to  the 
poor  men  who  were  intended  to  be  benefited.  The 
land  warrants  were  bought  up  for  a  song  by  land 
agents  and  speculators. 

SALT   SPEINGS. 

When  Ohio,.  Indiana,  and  Illinois  were  Terri- 
tories, there  were  several  salt  springs  in  different 
portions  of  them,  which  were  deemed  valuable  for 
the  manufacture  of  salt,  and  which  for  that  reason 


THE  PUBLIC  LAND  SYSTEM.          185 

were  reserved  from  public  sale  by  the  United  States, 
and  were  leased  to  persons  who  wished  to  work 
them.  "When  these  States  were  admitted  into  the 
Union,  the  Government  having  found  the  manage- 
ment of  the  salt  springs  inconvenient,  and  costing 
more  than  the  rents  obtained  for  them,  ceded  them 
to  the  States  in  which  they  were  situated.  Since 
that  time  the  grant  of  the  salt  springs  in  each  new 
State  has  been  made  for  no  other  or  better  reason 
than  that  there  were  precedents  on  the  statute-book, 
and  that  each  State  claimed  them,  although  the 
springs  have  ceased  to  be  of  any  considerable  value, 
and  have  nearly  all  been  long  since  abandoned  for 
salt  works.  In  the  grant  to  each  State  the  number 
is  limited  to  twelve,  because,  wherever  there  was 
brackish  water,  the  State  might  undertake  to  con- 
sider it  a  salt  spring,  and  on  this  pretext  claim  many 
entire  sections  of  land. 

BAD  KESULTS   OF   LAND   GRANTS. 

One  of  the  principal  bad  results  has  been,  that 
they  have  produced  great  corruption  in  Congress  in 
procuring  the  grants.  It  having  been  supposed  that 
the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  would  make  immense 
profits  in  consequence  of  the  great  value  of  the  lands 
granted,  combinations  were  formed  in  other  States 


186  THE   PUBLIC   LAND   SYSTEM. 

where  the  public  lands  were  situated,  to  procure 
charters  from  those  States  for  the  construction  of 
railroads  on  certain  specified  lines,  and  containing 
clauses  transferring  to  the  companies  all  lands 
granted  or  to  be  granted  by  Congress  in  aid  of  the 
construction  of  the  said  roads.  The  corporators  in 
these  companies  immediately  acquired  large  pecu- 
niary interest  in  procuring  large  grants  from  Con- 
gress, which  would  enure  to  themselves  the  mo- 
ment they  were  granted,  and,  in  order  to  procure 
these  grants,  would  make  combinations  in  Con- 
gress, by  which  they  would  convey  in  advance  large 
tracts  of  land  to  the  friends  of  the  members  of  Con- 
gress as  a  compensation  for  their  influence  in  pro- 
curing the  grants. 


HISTOKY  OF  THE  ILLINOIS   CENTRAL 
RAILROAD  BILL. 

THE  Illinois  bill  was  the  pioneer  bill,  and  went 
through  without  a  dollar,  pure,  uncorrnpt,  and  is 
the  only  one  which  has  worked  well. 

As  early  as  1835  the  Illinois  Legislature  granted 
to  D.  B.  Holbrooke  a  charter  for  the  Illinois  Central 
Railroad,  and  also  for  the  construction  of  a  city  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Ohio  River,  called  Cairo,  and  vari- 
ous other  charters  for  enterprises  connected  with  his 
proposed  improvements  at  Cairo.  Before  Mr.  Hol- 
brooke had  taken  any  steps  to  construct  the  road, 
the  Illinois  Legislature,  at  the  session  of  1836  and 
1837,  commenced  a  system  of  internal  improve- 
ments at  the  expense  and  under  the  control  of  the 
State,  which  system  embraced  the  construction  of 
the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  among  other  works, 
and  they  repealed  the  charter  granted  to  Mr.  Hol- 
brooke for  that  road.  After  spending  a  large 


188  ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   KAILBOAD. 

amount  of  money  on  these  various  works,  including 
over  a  million  of  dollars  upon  the  Illinois  Central 
road,  the  credit  of  the  State  failed  during  the  pecu- 
niary revulsion  in  1837,  1838,  1839,  and  1840,  and 
the  works  were  all  abandoned.  Mr.  Holbrooke 
again  applied  to  the  State  for  a  charter  to  construct 
the  road,  which  was  granted  to  him  and  to  his  asso- 
ciates, together  with  all  the  work  that  had  been 
already  done,  on  condition  that  he  would  proceed 
and  construct  the  road.  Mr.  Holbrooke,  through 
his  friend  and  partner  Judge  Breese,  Senator  from 
Illinois,  applied  to  Congress  for  a  preemption  right 
to  enter  all  the  lands  at  any  period  within  ten  years, 
on  each  side  of  the  line  of.  said  road,  at  one  dollar 
and  a  quarter  per  acre,  and  Senator  Breese  reported 
a  bill  to  that  effect  from  the  Committee  on  Public 
Lands  of  the  Senate,  and  urged  its  passage.  His 
colleague,  Mr.  Douglas,  denounced  the  proposition 
as  one  of  extravagant  speculation,  injurious  to  the 
interest  of  the  State,  inasmuch  as  its  effect  would 
be  to  withhold  eight  or  ten  million  acres  of  land 
from  settlement  and  cultivation  for  the  period  of  ten 
years,  until  they  should  become  valuable  in  conse- 
quence of  the  improvements  made  by  the  settlers 
upon  the  adjacent  lands,  without  imposing  any  obli- 
gation on  the  company  to  make  the  road,  or  to  pay 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   RAILROAD.  189 

for  any  of  the  lands,  except  those  which  they  should 
in  the  mean  time  sell  at  advanced  prices — the  bill, 
in  fact,  creating  avast  monopoly  of  the  public  lands. 
Mr.  Douglas  then  introduced  into  the  Senate  a 
counter-proposition,  which  was  to  make  the  grant 
to  the  State  of  Illinois,  of  alternate  sections.  For 
details  see  the  bill  itself.  Mr.  Holbrooke  and  his 
agents  used  their  influence  to  defeat  this  bill,  be- 
cause the  grant  was  made  to  the  State,  instead  of  to 
the  company.  Mr.  Douglas  succeeded  in  passing  it 
through  the  Senate,  with  almost  a  certain  prospect 
of  its  passage  in  the  House.  When  it  was  supposed 
that  the  grant  was  certain  to  become  a  law,  Mr. 
Holbrooke  and  his  agents  went  directly  to  Illinois, 
when  the  Legislature  was  in  session,  but  at  a  time 
when  no  person  in  Illinois  supposed  that  the  bill 
would  pass  Congress,  and  procured  the  passage  of  a 
law  making  several  important  amendments  to  his 
charter.  After  the  Legislature  adjourned,  and  after 
the  land  grant  had  been  defeated  in  Congress, 
fortunately,  but  unexpectedly,  by  two  votes,  Mr. 
Douglas  returned  home,  and  upon  examining  the 
manuscript  acts  of  the  Legislature  before  they  were 
printed,  discovered  that  a  clause  had  been  surrepti- 
tiously inserted  into  the  amendments  of  Mr.  Hol- 
brooke's charter,  conveying  to  his  company  all  the 


190  ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   RAILROAD. 

lands  granted  or  which  should  be  granted  to  the 
State  of  Illinois,  to  aid  in  the  construction  of  rail- 
roads in  that  State!     This  act  purported  to  have 
passed  the  Illinois  Legislature  on  the  very  day  on 
which  the  final  vote  was  taken  in  Congress  upon  the 
grant  of  lands.     Upon  inquiry  of  the  Governor, 
Secretary  of  State,  and  members  of  the  Legislature, 
they  all  denied  any  knowledge  of  this  particular 
clause  in  the  act,  and  no  one  could  account  for  its 
being  in  the  act,  nor  did  any  one  know  at  what 
time  it  was  inserted,  or  by  whom.     By  an  examina- 
tion of  the  journals  it  appeared  that  the  Legislature 
had  at  the  same  time  passed  resolutions  instructing 
their  Senators  and  requesting  their  Representatives 
in  Congress  to  vote  for  the  grant  of  land,  although 
it  had  already  passed  the  Senate,  and  all  the  Repre- 
sentatives were  supporting  it  in  the  House.     Mr. 
Douglas  repaired  immediately  to  Chicago,  and  made 
a  public  speech,  in  which  he  exposed  this  act  of  the 
Illinois  Legislature  in  giving  away  the  lands  which 
Congress  proposed  to  grant  to  the  State,  and  de- 
nounced it  as  an  act  of  fraud  and  corruption,  and 
pledged  himself  to  defeat  any  grant  of  land  in  Con- 
gress which  should  come  to  Mr.  Holbrooke  or  his 
associates,  or  to  anybody  except  the  State  of  Illinois. 
It  was  never  ascertained  how  the  amendment  was  in- 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL  EAILEOAD.  191 

troduced ;  probably  some  enrolling  clerk  was  bribed. 
When  Congress  assembled  at  the  next  session,  Mr. 
Holbrooke  made  his  appearance,  and  urged  Mr. 
Douglas  to  renew  his  bill  for  the  grant  of  land. 
Mr.  Douglas  showed  him  a  bill  which  he  was 
about  to  introduce,  commencing  the  road  at  a  dif- 
ferent point  on  the  Ohio  River,  and  running  it  to 
Chicago  on  a  different  line  from  the  Illinois  Central, 
and  making  it  a  condition  of  the  grant  that  it  should 
not  enure'  to  any  railroad  company  then  in  exist- 
ence. 

Mr.  Holbrooke  begged  Mr.  Douglas  to  save 
Cairo,  where  he  had  lodged  his  entire  fortune.  Mr. 
Douglas  consented,  provided  he  would  release  his 
charter  for  the  road,  and  his  charters  for  the  various 
improvements  at  Cairo.  Holbrooke  went  to  New 
York,  and  as  president  of  the  company  executed 
the  release,  and  returned  with  it  to  Washington. 
Mr.  Douglas  then  told  him  he  thought  he  was  a 
swindler,  and  had  resolved  to  cheat  somebody,  but 
was  not  wise  enough  to  cheat  him,  and  that  he 
ought  to  know,  and  did  know,  that  neither  the 
president  nor  the  directors  alone  could  make  a  valid 
release ;  that  he  must  first  summon  a  meeting  of 
the  stockholders,  have  them  instruct  the  directors, 
and  the  directors  instruct  the  president.  He 


192  ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   KAILROAD. 

thereupon  returned  to  New  York,  and  brought 
back  a  satisfactory  release,  setting  forth  the  meet- 
ing of  the  stockholders  and  of  the  directors.  I 
had  furnished  him  with  an  outline  of  a  proper 
release.  I  don't  know  whether  the  stockholders 
ever  did  actually  meet,  but  there  was  the  seal, 
the  signature,  and  the  proceedings  set  forth,  and 
that  was  enough.  I  immediately  sent  the  release 
to  the  Secretary  of  State  of  Illinois,  to  be  filed 
and  recorded,  and  requested  him  to  telegraph  me 
upon  its  reception.  I  waited  until  I  received  the 
telegraphic  despatch,  and  then  called  up  the  bill  and 
passed  it  through  the  Senate.  I  had  previously  told 
Holbrooke  that  if  he  did  not  leave  the  city  I  would 
denounce  him  in  open  Senate,  as  I  did  to  the  Senate, 
and  that  I  would  not  allow  even  a  suspicion  that  so 
great  a  scoundrel  as  he,  was  in  any  way  connected 
with  the  measure.  The  bill  passed  the  House  by 
three  majority,  and  I  was  confined  to  my  room  in 
great  pain  by  an  abscess  in  my  thigh,  rendering  a 
surgical  operation  necessary,  when  Mr.  Holbrooke 
returned  and  walked  into  my  room.  I  allowed  his 
presence,  it  being  no  longer  necessary  to  quarrel 
with  him.  We  had  some  conversation,  when  he 
offered,  if  I  would  surrender  the  release,  to  deed  to 
me  one-half  of  the  lands  granted,  over  two  and  a  half 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   KAILBOAD.  193 

millions,  and  worth  twenty  millions.  I  jumped  for 
my  crutches,  he  ran  from  the  room,  and  I  gave  him 
a  parting  blow  on  the  head.  He  did  not  know  that 
I  had  sent  the  release  home  to  Illinois,  to  the  Secre- 
tary of  State. 

The  bill,  when  first  introduced,  had  been  opposed 
by  the  Senators  from  Mississippi,  Davis  and  Foote, 
on  the  ground  of  its  unconstitutionality,  and  also  by 
the  Senators  from  Alabama,  King  and  Clemens,  and 
by  the  members  of  the  House  from  those  States. 
Immediately  after  its  first  defeat,  I  went  to  my 
children's  plantation  in  Mississippi,  and  from  there 
to  Mobile,  intending  to  see  the  president  of  the 
Mobile  Kailroad,  then  building,  but  which  had  been 
stopped,  and  failed  for  want  of  means.  I  inquired 
the  way  to  his  office,  found  it  and  himself,  and  for- 
tunately all  the  directors,  who  had  just  had  a  meet- 
ing, and  knew  what  to  do.  I  proposed  to  him  to 
procure  a  grant  of  lands,  by  making  it  part  of  my 
Illinois  Central  Eailroad  Bill,  which  they  assented 
to.  I  then  told  them  that  their  Senators  and  Kepre- 
sentatives  must  vote  for  the  bill.  They  said  they 
would.  "  No ! "  I  replied, "  they  have  already  voted 
against  it.  It  is  necessary  to  instruct  them  by  the 
Legislatures  of  your  States."  One  of  the  directors, 

Foote,  was  related  to  Senator  Foote,  of  Mississippi. 
13 


194  ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   KAILEOAD. 

and  said  he  would  have  this  done,  and  that  Foote 
should  never  be  reflected  to  the  Senate  unless  he 
did  vote  as  was  required.  The  others  all  thought 
they  had  sufficient  influence  to  secure  instructions 
from  the  Legislatures  of  Alabama  and  Mississippi. 
I  told  them  it  was  necessary  to  keep  quiet,  and 
secret,  as  to  my  connection  in  the  matter.  They 
promised  this,  and  we  all  returned  to  Montgomery, 
Alabama.  They  begged  me  to  stop  with  them,  but 
I  went  straight  on  to  Washington,  being  afraid  to 
be  seen  in  those  parts.  After  I  arrived  in  Wash- 
ington, the  instructions  came  from  Alabama,  and 
King  came,  and  cursed  the  Legislature.  Davis  did 
not  know  what  in  the  world  was  the  matter,  and 
refused  to  believe  it.  Soon  after  came  instructions, 
by  telegraphic  report,  from  Mississippi ;  Davis 
swore,  and  a  few  days  after  came  his  letters  and 
written  instructions.  Then  they  wanted  me  to 
assist  them.  I  told  them,  by  way  of  brag,  and 
to  conceal  my  connection  with  their  instructions, 
that  they  had  refused  to  support  my  bill,  and  that  I 
could  carry  it  without  them  ;  but  I  finally  yielded, 
and  consented  to  King's  proposition  (I  allowed  it  to 
come  from  him),  to  amend  my  bill,  so  as  to  connect 
the  Mobile  road — thus  making  a  connection  be- 
tween the  latter  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  Some 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   RAILROAD.  195 

time  afterwards  I  prepared  an  amendment — Mr. 
Rockwell,  of  Connecticut,  a  good  lawyer,  assisting 
me — and  gave  them  notice  that  I  was  going  to 
call  up  the  bill  in  the  Senate.  When  I  did  so,  I 
found  that  Foote,  Davis,  King,  and  others  were 
absent  from  the  Senate  room,  and  I  sent  a  boy  to 
their  committee  rooms  to  summon  them.  They 
came  in  haste,  King  saying  that  he  had  not  pre- 
pared an  amendment,  and  that  he  did  not  know 
what  was  required,  and  asking  me  to  draw  one  for 
him.  I  told  him  I  had  anticipated  this,  and  showed 
him  the  amendment  whicli  I  had  prepared.  I 
then  made  my  motion  in  the  Senate,  and  Mr.  King 
then  rose,  and  with  great  dignity  asked  the  Senator 
from  Illinois  to  accept  an  amendment  which  he 
had  to  offer.  I  did  so.  They  all  voted  for  the  bill, 
and  it  passed  the  Senate,  and  went  to  the  House. 

All  this  occurred  during  the  excited  times  of 
slavery  discussion  and  agitation  in  1850. 

When  the  bill  stood  at  the  head  of  the  calendar, 
Harris,  of  Illinois,  moved  to  proceed  to  clear  the 
Speaker's  table,  and  the  motion  was  carried.  .  We 
had  counted  up,  and  had  fifteen  majority  for  the 
bill  pledged  to  support  it.  We  had  gained  votes 
by  lending  our  support  to  many  local  measures. 
The  House  proceeded  to  clear  the  Speaker's  table, 


196  ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   EALLKOAD. 

and  the  Clerk  announced  "  A  bill  granting  lands 
to  the  State  of  Illinois,"  et  cetera.     Then  you  could 
see  the  opposition  start  up.     A  motion  was  imme- 
diately made  by  the  opposition,  which  brought  on  a 
.  vote,  and  we  found  ourselves  in  a  minority  of  one. 
I  was  standing  in  the  lobby,  paying  eager  atten- 
tion, and  would  have  given  the  world  to  be  at 
Harris's   side,  but  was  too  far  off  to  -  get  there  in 
time ;  and  it  was  all  in  an  instant,  and  the   next 
moment  a  motion  would  have  been  made,  which 
would  have  brought  on  a  decided  vote,  and  have 
defeated  the  bill.     Harris,  quick  as  thought,  pale 
and  white  as  a  sheet,  jumped  to  his  feet,  and  moved 
.that  the  House  go  into  committee  of  the  whole  on 
the  slavery  question.       There  were  fifty  members 
ready  with  speeches  on  this  subject,  and  the  motion 
was  carried.     Harris  came  to  me  in  the  lobby,  and 
asked  me  if  he  had  made  the  right  motion.     I  said, 
"  Yes,"  and  asked  him  if  he  knew  what  was  the 
effect  of  his  motion.      He  replied  it  placed  the  bill 
at  the  foot  of  the  calendar.     I  asked  him  how  long 
it  would  be  before  it  came  up  again.     He  said,  "  it 
would  not  come  up  this  session  ;  it  was  impossible, 
there  were  ninety-seven  bills  ahead  of  it."     Why 
not  then  have  suffered  defeat  ?    It  was  better  that 
we  did  not.     We  then  racked  our  brains,  or  I  did, 


ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   RAILROAD.  197 

for  many  nights,  to  find  a  way  to  get  at  the  bill,  and 
at  last  it  occurred  to  me  that  the  same  course  pur- 
sued with  the  other  bills  would  place  them,  each 
in  its  turn,  at  the  foot  of  the  calendar,  and  thus 
bring  the  Illinois  bill  at  the  head.  But  how  to 
do  this  was  the  question.  The  motions  to 
clear  the  Speaker's  table,  and  to  go  into  "  com- 
mittee of  the  whole"  on  the  slavery  question, 
would  each  have  to  be  made  ninety-seven  times, 
and  while  the  first  motion  might  be  made  by 
some  of  our  friends,  or  the  friends  of  the  other  bills, 
it  would  not  do  for  us,  or  any  one  known  to  be  a 
warm  friend  or  connected  with  us,  to  make  the 
second  motion,  as  it  would  defeat  the  other  bills,  and 
alienate  from  us  the  support  of  their  friends.  I 

thought  a  long  while,  and  finally  fixed  on  Mr. 

of  ,  who,  though  bitterly  opposed  to  me,  we 

having  often  had  warm  and  excited  passages  of 
arms  on  political  questions,  I  yet  knew  to  be  my 
warm  admirer  and  personal  friend.  Living  up  in 

,  he  supported  the  bill,  but  did  not  care  much 

one  way  or  the  other  whether  it  passed  or  not; 
voted  for  it,  but  was  lukewarm.  I  called  him  aside 
one  day,  stated  my  case,  and  asked  him  if  he  would 
place  me  under  obligations  to  him  by  making  the 
Becond  motion,  as  often  as  was  necessary.  He  said 


198  ILLINOIS   CENTEAL   KAILEOAD. 

yes,  provided  that  Mr.  ,  of  ,  whom  he 

hated,  should  have  no  credit  in  the  event  of  the 
success  of  the  measure.  I  replied  that  he  would 
have  none.  Harris,  then  in  the  House,  sometimes 
twice  on  the  same  day,  on  others  once,  either  made 
himself,  or  caused  the  friends  of  the  other  bills  to 
make  the  first  motion,  when  Mr.  would  im- 
mediately make  the  second.  All  praised  us ;  said 
we  were  acting  nobly  in  supporting  them.  We 
replied,  "  Yes,  having  defeated  our  bill,  we  thought 
we  would  be  generous,  and  assist  you."  All  cursed 
Mr.  .  Some  asked  me  if  I  had  not  influ- 
ence enough  to  prevent  his  motion.  I  replied,  he 
was  an  ardent  antagonist,  and  that  I  had  nothing 
to  do  with  him,  to  the  truth  of  which  they  assented. 
Finally,  by  this  means,  the  Illinois  bill  got  to  the 
head  of  the  docket.  Harris,  that  morning,  made  the 
first  motion.  "We  had  counted  noses,  and  found,  as 
we  thought,  twenty-eight  majority,  all  pledged. 
The  Clerk  announced  "  a  bill  granting  lands  to  the 
State  of  Illinois,"  and  so  on,  reading  by  its  title. 
The  opposition  again  started,  were  taken  completely 
by  surprise,  said  there  must  be  some  mistake,  that 
the  bill  had  gone  to  the  foot  of  the  calendar.  It 
was  explained,  and  the  Speaker  declared  it  all  right. 
A  motion  was  immediately  made  by  the  opposition 


ILLINOIS    CENTRAL   RAILROAD.  199 

to  go  into  committee  of  the  whole ;  it  was  negatived 
by  one  majority,  and  we  passed  the  bill  by  three 
majority. 

If  any  man  ever  passed  a  bill,  I  did  that  one.  I 
did  the  whole  work,  and  was  devoted  to  it  for  two 
entire  years.  The  people  in  Illinois  are  beginning 
to  forget  it.  It  is  sometimes  said,  "  Douglas  never 
made  a  speech  upon  it."  The  Illinois  Central 
Railroad  Company  hold  their  lands  now  by  virtue 
of  the  release  from  Holbrooke,  which  I  procured. 


INDIANS  AND  INDIAN  INTERCOURSE 
LAWS. 

THE  Government  of  the  United  States  recog- 
nizes the  possessory  right  of  the  Indian  tribes  to 
the  country  occupied  by  them,  and  protects  the  In- 
dians in  the  enjoyment  of  such  rights  against  mo- 
lestation or  invasion  by  anybody.  "While  it  recog- 
nizes this  possessory  right  in  the  Indians,  of  which 
they  cannot  be  deprived  without  their  consent, 
it  denies  the  irright  to  dispose  of  their  lands,  'or  to 
hold  intercourse  with  anybody  except  the  United 
States  or  their  duly  appointed  agents.  The  mode 
adopted  for  extinguishing  the  Indian  title  is  by 
treaty  between  the  United  States  and  the  several 
tribes,  which  treaties,  like  all  other  treaties,  are  to 
be  ratified  by  the  Senate.  In  order  to  protect  the 
Indians  in  their  right  to  occupy  their  lands,  Con- 
gress has  enacted  a  system  of  laws  which  are  usually 
known  as  the  "  Indian  Intercourse  Laws."  These 


INDIAN   INTERCOURSE   LAWS.  201 

laws  make  it  a  criminal  offence  for  any  person  to 
invade  or  enter  the  Indian  Territories  without  per- 
mission of  the  Government,  or  to  trade  with  the  In- 
dians in  any  respect  whatever,  and  also  make  it  a 
criminal  offence  for  the  Government  agents  or  any- 
body else  to  sell  ardent  spirits  to  the  Indians.  They 
provide  for  the  appointment  of  Indian  agents  by 
the  President  and  Senate,  to  reside  among  the 
various  tribes,  and  to  see  that  the  Indians  are  not 
molested  by  white  people,  and  that  the  intercourse 
laws  are  not  violated  either  by  the  Indians  or  whites. 
They  provide  also  for  the  appointment  of  licensed 
traders  among  the  various  tribes,  who  supply  the 
Indians  with  blankets,  clothing,  provisions,  and  other 
articles  adapted  to  their  use,  at  certain  fixed  rates  of 
profit  above  the  wholesale  cost,  and  prohibit  a]l  other 
persons  from  trading  with  the  Indians.  They  pro- 
vide also  for  the  appointment  of  persons  called 
"  fanners,"  who  reside  among  the  Indians,  and 
teach  them  the  arts  of  agriculture,  the  use  of  the 
implements,  and  the  mode  of  planting,  cultivating, 
and  preserving  the  crops.  These  traders,  farmers, 
and  licensed  persons  residing  among  the  Indians, 
are  all  under  the  general  superintendence  of  the  In- 
dian agents  of  the  respective  tribes,  and  these  agents 
themselves  act  under  the  direction  and  instructions 


202  INDIAN   INTERCOURSE   LAWS. 

of  the  Superintendent  of  Indian  Affairs  for  each 
territory  or  district  for  which  a  superintendent  is 
appointed  ;  and  the  superintendents  act  under  the 
direct  authority  of,  and  are  responsible  to,  the  Com- 
missioner of  Indian  Affairs,  who  resides  in  Wash- 
ington, and  is  the  head  of  the  Bureau  in  the  Depart- 
ment of  the  Interior  known  as  the  Indian  Bureau. 


THE  EECIPEOCITY  TREATY. 

THE  increase  of  population  and  business  along  the 
entire  extent  of  our  Northern  frontier,  and  upon  the 
great  lakes,  rendered  a  more  intimate  and  liberal  in- 
tercourse between  the  Canadas  and  the  United  States 
necessary  to  the  interest  and  convenience  o£  both 
countries,  and  also  created  a  necessity  for  procuring, 
on  the  part  of  the  United  States,  the  right  to  use 
and  navigate  the  "Welland  Canal,  connecting  Lakes 
Erie  and  Ontario,  and  by  which  the  Falls  of  Niagara 
are  avoided  ;  and  also  for  the  navigation  of  the  river 
St.  Lawrence,  and  the  use  of  the  locks  and  short 
canals  around  the  falls,  and  obstructions  in  said 
river. 

The  necessity  for  an  arrangement  to  cover  these 
points  was  deeply  felt  by  the  Canadians  as  well  as 
by  the  Americans  interested  in  the  trade  of  the  great 


204:  THE   RECIPROCITY   TREATY. 

lakes.  As  an  illustration  of  the  inconveniences  aris- 
ing out  of  the  former  restrictive  policy,  it  will  be 
borne  in  mind  that  the  transportation  from  Chicago 
and  all  other  points  west  to  the  eastward,  consisted 
chiefly  in  wheat,  corn,  beef,  pork,  and  other  heavy 
and  bulky  articles ;  whereas  the  freights  up  the 
lakes,  westward,  consisted  in  drygoods,  manufac- 
tured articles,  and  ordinary  merchandise,  so  that 
one  vessel  freighted  with  these  articles  could  carry 
up  the  lakes  goods  of  sufficient  value  to  pay  for  the 
freight  of  ten  vessels  down  the  lakes,  and  conse- 
quently a  large  portion  of  the  vessels  which  carried 
full  cargoes  down  the  lakes  were  under  the  neces- 
sity of  returning  with  very  slight  or  no  cargoes.  It 
soon  became  the  habit  of  vessels  to  touch  upon  the 
Canadian  shore,  and  to  take  in  building-stone,  fire- 
wood, and  lumber,  for  the  purposes  of  ballast.  But 
when  they  arrived  in  Chicago  with  their  cargoes,  the 
duty  was  frequently  greater  than  the  value  of  the 
cargo,  and  the  consequence  was  that  hundreds  of 
vessels  were  known  to  throw  their  entire  cargo  over- 
board into  the  lake,  rather  than  pay  the  duty,  and 
this  at  a  time  when  the  articles  were  in  demand  at 
Chicago  and  at  all  other  points  on  the  lakes.  These 
inconveniences  were  felt  also  in  the  shipments  of 
wheat  and  other  American  products  from  the  upper 


THE   KECIPKOCITY   TEEATY.  205 

lakes  to  Oswego,  and  other  points  below  on  their 
way  to  New  York,  not  only  in  consequence  of  the 
high  duties  on  the  Welland  Canal,  but  from  the  fact 
that  they  had  to  pay  duties  in  Canada  for  the  im- 
portation of  those  articles  from  the  United  States, 
when  they  were  only  in  transitu  /  while  the  Cana- 
dians, who  found  it  to  their  interest  during  a  great 
portion  of  the  year,  when  the  St.  Lawrence  was 
closed  by  ice,  to  send  their  wheat  and  other  prod- 
ucts to  New  York  by  the  railroads  and  canals,  were 
prevented  from  doing  so  by  the  duties  which  they 
were  compelled  to  pay  by  the  United  States,  in  con- 
sequence of  entering  our  territory. 

These  considerations  suggested  the  propriety  of 
an  arrangement  between  the  two  countries  by  which 
certain  articles  of  growth  and  manufacture  in  each 
might  enter  the  other  free  of  duty,  and  permitting 
the  United  States  to  use  the  canals  and  the  St.  Law- 
rence River  for  purposes  of  navigation  on  an  equal 
footing  with  the  British  subjects,  and  without  paying 
any  other  or  higher  duties.  Failing  to  procure  any 
such  arrangement  by  treaty,  General  Dix,  of  New 
York,  Mr.  Douglas,  and  others,  proposed  bills  in  the 
Senate,  making  the  propositions  in  the  form  of  re- 
ciprocal legislation,  for  the  accomplishment  of  their 
object.  Pending  these  measures,  however,  a  treaty 


206  THE  BECEPKOCTTY   TREATY. 

was  made  between  the  United  States  and  Great 
Britain,  which  is  known  as  the  Reciprocity  Treaty, 
by  which  these  objects  were  accomplished.  This 
was  in  1850  or  1851. 


THE   MONROE  DOCTRINE. 

WHAT  is  known  as  the  "  Monroe  Doctrine  "  had 
its  origin  and  name  in  a  recommendation  of  Presi- 
dent Monroe,  in  one  of  his  messages  to  Congress,  at 
a  time  when  Spain  was  making  arrangements  to  re- 
conquer and  subdue  her  various  colonies  in  America 
which  had  revolted,  and  established  their  independ- 
ence in  1819-'20,  and  ?21.  It  was  apprehended  by 
the  American  Government  that  the  despotic  powers 
of  Europe,  after  the  overthrow  of  Napoleon  and  the 
reestablish ment  of  the  despotic  sway  in  Europe, 
would  lend  their  aid  to  conquer  and  subject  these 
Spanish  colonies,  which  had  then  become  inde- 
pendent States ;  and  that  while  a  portion  of  them 
would,  in  this  event,  be  restored  to  Spain,  the  others 
might  be  divided  among  the  various  powers  of  Eu- 
rope. In  view  of  this  probable  result,  President 
Monroe  declared,  in  his  message  to  Congress,  with 
a  view  of  its  being  taken  as  notice  to  all  Europe, 


208  THE   MONKOE   DOCTEINE. 

that  no  portion  of  the  American  continent  was  here- 
after to  be  deemed  open  to  European  colonization, 
and  that  the  United  States  would  consider  any  such 
attempt  as  imposing  upon  them  the  obligation  to 
take  such  steps  as  were  necessary  to  prevent  it. 
This  declaration  assumed  the  name  of  the  Monroe 
Doctrine;  and  it  has  frequently  been  appealed  to  by 
American  statesmen  as  a  rule  to  he  inflexibly  ad- 
hered to,  whenever  any  European  power  has  threat- 
ened or  attempted  to  extend  its  dominions  upon 
the  American  continent — North,  South,  or  Central 
America.  This  doctrine  did  not  contemplate  any  in- 
terference on  the  part  of  the  United  States  with  the 
existing  rights  or  colonial  possessions  of  any  Eu- 
ropean power,  out  was  a  protest  against  the  exten- 
sion of  their  power  and  policy  in  the  future. 


CENTRAL  AMERICA. 

THE  CLAYTON  AND  BULWEE  TREATY. 

THE  oldest  possession  which  Great  Britain  claims 
in  Central  America  is  that  which  is  known  as  the 
"  Balize  Settlement,"  dividing  Nicaragua  and  Hon- 
duras on  the  one  side  from  the  Mexican  State  of 
Yucatan  on  the  other.  More  than  a  century  ago 
some  British  merchants  sent  out  ships,  and  cut  and 
loaded  them  with  logwood  at  the  Balize,  which  at 
that  time  belonged  to  Spain.  In  making  a  treaty  of 
peace  between  Spain  and  England,  a  clause  was  in- 
serted continuing  the  permission  to  cut  logwood, 
without  conveying  any  right  of  soil  or  dominion  to 
England.  Under  the  permission  to  cut  logwood, 
England  founded  a  settlement  at  the  Balize,  with 
no  fixed  or  definite  boundaries ;  and  she  has  en- 
larged and  extended  it  from  time  to  time,  and  or- 
ganized it  into  a  colony,  without  paying  any  atten- 
14 


210  CENTRAL   AMERICA. 

tion  to  the  territorial  rights  or  boundaries  of  the 
adjoining  States. 

About  the  same  time  England  pretended  to  have 
made  a  treaty  with  a  small  tribe  of  Indians  called 
the  Mosquitos,  upon  the  coast  of  Central  America, 
and  to  have  guaranteed  to  the  Indians  the  protec- 
tion of  the  British  Government.  Some  years  ago, 
perhaps  twenty,  the  British  Government  sent  an 
agent  to  the  Mosquito  coast,  and  found  an  Indian 
boy — part  Indian  and  part  mulatto — who  was  said 
to  have  been  the  son  of  a  Mosquito  Indian  chief, 
and  took  him  over  to  Jamaica  and  had  him  crowned 
as  the  king  of  the  Mosquitos,  took  him  back  again 
to  his  own  country,  and  put  him  in  nominal  pos- 
session of  his  alleged  inheritance,  but,  in  fact,  under 
the  direction  and  control  of  a  British  consul  on  that 
coast.  This  Mosquito  country  was  within  the  char- 
tered limits  of  the  State  of  Nicaragua,  and  conse- 
quently the  Indian  tribes,  the  Mosquitos  included, 
were  subjects  of  the  State  of  Nicaragua,  and  in- 
capable of  establishing  a  government  independent 
of  that  State. 

This  was  the  condition  of  affairs  in  Central 
America  when  the  war  between  the  United  States 
and  Mexico  was  brought  to  a 'close.  It  was  under- 
stood, and  in  fact  not  denied,  that  Great  Britain 


THE  CLAYTON  AND  BULWER  TREATY.     211 

used  her  entire  powers  of  diplomacy  to  encourage 
Mexico,  and  to  defeat  any  treaty  of  peace  by  which 
the  United  States  would  acquire  any  Mexican  ter- 
ritory. On  the  day  that  it  became  known  at  Vera 
Cruz  that  a  treaty  of  peace  had  been  signed,  by 
which  California  and  ISTew  Mexico  were  transferred 
to  the  United  States,  the  British  fleet  set  sail  from 
Vera  Cruz  and  proceeded  directly  to  the  mouth  of 
the  San  Juan  River,  in  Central  America,  and  took 
possession  of  the  town  of  San  Juan  at  the  mouth 
of  the  river,  changed  its  name  to  Grey  town,  and 
established  British  authority  there,  in  the  name  of 
the  Mosquito  king,  to  be  exercised  by  the  British 
consul,  and,  in  fact,  converted  into  a  British  depend- 
ency. The  United  States  protested  against  this  act, 
as  being  an  aggression  upon  the  territorial  rights  of 
Nicaragua,  and  as  being  prompted  by  hostile  mo- 
tives toward  the  United  States,  it  having  for  its 
object  to  close  up  the  only  channej  through  which 
the  United  States  could  establish  and  maintain  com- 
munication between  the  Atlantic  States  and  our 
newly  acquired  possessions  on  the  Pacific. 

The  controversy  growing  out  of  this  seizure  of 
that  transit  route  lead  to  the  Clayton  and  Bulwer 
treaty.  It  is  proper,  however,  to  remark,  that 
during  the  last  years  of  Mr.  Folk's  administration, 


212     THE  CLAYTON  AND  BULWEK  TBEATY. 

he  had  appointed  Judge  Hise,  of  Kentucky,  minister 
to  the  Central  American  States,  and  that  Judge 
Hise  had  negotiated  a  treaty  on  the  part  of  the 
United  States,  with  the  State  of  Nicaragua,  by 
which  the  United  States  were  invested  with  the  ex- 
clusive right  of  constructing  a  ship  canal  between 
the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  Oceans,  through  the  San 
Juan  River  and  Lake  Nicaragua,  together  with  the 
right  of  establishing  towns  and  free  ports  at  each 
end  of  the  canal,  and  of  fortifying  the  same  and 
placing  the  whole  line  of  the  canal  and  its  banks, 
from  ocean  to  ocean,  under  the  exclusive  protection 
of  the  United  States.  This  Hise  treaty  was  signed 
in  Central  America  while  Mr.  Polk  was  President, 
but  did  not  reach  the  United  States  until  after  the 
inauguration  of  General  Taylor,  and  the  appoint- 
ment of  Mr.  Clayton  as  Secretary  of  State.  Mr. 
Clayton  refused  to  accept  this  treaty,  and  sent  an 
agent  to  Central  America  to  have  it  cancelled,  and 
a  new  treaty  made  by  which  the  said  canal  should 
be  placed  under  the  joint  protection  of  Great  Britain 
and  the  United  States.  Mr.  Clayton  then  negoti- 
ated with  Sir  Henry  Bulwer  the  Clayton  treaty, 
by  which  his  scheme  of  a  joint  protection  to  the 
transit  route  was  recognized,  and  a  provision  in- 
serted, by  which  Great  Britain  and  the  United 


THE  CLAYTON  AND  BULWEE  TREATY.     213 

States  pledged  their  faith,  each  to  the  other,  that 
neither  of  them  would  ever  colonize,  annex,  fortify, 
or  exercise  exclusive  dominion  over  any  portion  of 
Central  America.  After  the  terms  of  this  treaty 
were  agreed  to  by  Clayton  and  Bulwer,  Mr.  Clayton 
refused  to  sign  it  until  he  could  procure  from  two- 
thirds  of  the  Senators  a  private  pledge  that  they 
would  ratify  it,  which  being  done,  he  signed  the 
treaty,  and  sent  it  to  the  Senate  for  ratification. 
Mr.  Douglas  was  the  only  man  in  the  Senate  who 
made  any  active  opposition  to  the  ratification  of  the 
treaty.  He  opposed  it  upon  the  ground  that  he 
wanted  no  partnerships  with  Great  Britain  in  re- 
spect to  the  transit  route ;  that  such  a  partnership 
would  be  productive  of  constant  misunderstanding 
and  disputes,  instead  of  being  a  bond  of  peace ;  and 
he  urged  that  the  Senate  reject  the  treaty,  and  call 
npon  the  Executive  to  send  to  the  Senate  the  Hise 
treaty,  that  it  might  be  ratified,  with  such  amend- 
ments as  the  Senate  might  see  fit  to  make,  in  order 
that  we  should  have  the  exclusive  control  over  the 
transit  route,  and  might  open  it  to  the  world  on 
such  terms  as  were  compatible  with  American  in- 
terests. Mr.  Douglas  especially  opposed  the  treaty, 
upon  the  ground  that  he  would  never  enter  into  any 
compact  with  Great  Britain  or  any  other  European 


214  THE   CLAYTON   AND   BTJLWEB   TREATY. 

power  in  respect  to  the  American  continent,  by 
which  the  faith  of  the  nation  should  be  pledged,  for 
all  time  to  come,  never  to  annex  or  colonize  such 
portions  of  the  continent  as  our  interest  and  safety 
would  inevitably  compel  us  to  annex  at  some  future 
day.  He  did  not*  desire  to  annex  the  country  then, 
but  insisted  that  the  time  would  come  when  we 
would  be  compelled  to  exercise  jurisdiction  over 
that  transit  route.  All  objection,  however,  to  the 
treaty  proved  useless,  as  nearly  the  whole  Senate 
had  been  committed  to  it  privately,  in  advance,  and 
when  the  vote  was  taken  there  were  but  eight  votes 
recorded  in  the  negative  in  the  whole  Senate. 

The  main  argument  urged  in  favor  of  the  ratifi- 
cation of  the  treaty,  was  that  it  drove  Great  Britain 
out  of  Central  America,  by  abolishing  the  British 
protectorate  over  the  Mosquito  coast.  To  this  Mr. 
Douglas  replied,  that  while  Great  Britain  had  no 
right  to  any  protectorate  over  that  coast,  such  pre- 
tended right  was  not  abolished  by  the  treaty,  but  on 
the  contrary,  equivocal  language  was  used  in  it, 
which,  when  ratified,  Great  Britain  would  claim 
recognized  the  existence  of  such  protectorate,  and 
gave  her  the  right  to  maintain  it  in  the  future. 

The  treaty  had  been  no  sooner  ratified,  than 
Great  Britain  did  claim  that  her  protectorate  was 


THE  CLAYTON  AND  BULWEE  TBEATY.     215 

still  in  existence,  recognized  and  acknowledged  by 
the  United  States,  and  she  has  from  that  day  to 
this  persisted  in  this  claim  to  a  protectorate. 

All  this  occured  in  secret  session  in  1850,  and 
within  the  next  three  years  I  tried  often  to  get  the 
Senate  to  remove  the  injunction  of  secrecy,  so  that 
I  might  publish  my  views.  In  1853,  three  years 
afterwards,  the  English  extended  their  influence, 
and  took  possession  of  Ruatan.  Cass,  in  the  Senate, 
began  to  get  frightened.  All  that  I  had  predicted 
had  come  to  pass.  Cass  made  a  speech  denouncing 
Clayton  and  the  treaty.  This  was  occurring  about 
the  time  when  Clayton  retired  from  the  office  of 
Secretary  of  State.  Soule  entered  into  the  discus- 
sion, and  in  the  course  of  their  speeches,  both  he 
and  Cass,  forgetting  that  the  injunction  of  secrecy 
had  not  been  removed,  quoted  what  had  occurred 
during  the  secret  session  of  1850,  or  thereabouts. 
Nobody  interrupted  them,  and  I  thought  now  is  the 
time  to  get  my  speech  and  my  views  before  the 
public,  so  I  went  to  a  Senator  and  said  to  him, 
"  Look  here,  Soule  and  Cass  are  quoting  what  occur- 
red in  secret  session ;  suppose  you  move  the  Senate 
to  go  into  secret  session,  and  have  the  injunction 
removed,  so  that  they  can  do  so."  The  Senator 
started  up,  mischievously ;  Soule  apologized,  said  he 


216     THE  CLAYTON  AND  BULWEE  TREATY. 

was  not  aware  that  the  injunction  had  not  been  re- 
moved ;  the  Senate  went  into  secret  session,  and  the 
injunction  was  removed. 

Clayton  retired  from  the  office  of  Secretary  of 
State,  went  back  to  Delaware,  and  said  Cass  had 
been  abusing  and  slandering  him,  and  that  it  was 
necessary  for  him  to  reply,  in  order  to  vindicate 
himself,  promising  to  annihilate  Cass.  He  was  re- 
elected  to  the  Senate,  and  could  have  annihilated 
Cass,  for  the  latter  had  taken  the  wrong  ground, 
and  Clayton  was  very  powerful  in  debate. 

Cass  vanished,  said  his  wife  was  sick,  and  that 
he  had  to  go  home  to  Detroit.  Clayton  came  on 
ready  with  a  speech,  which  would  have  just  fitted 
Cass,  and  asked  where  he  was.  He  was  told  Cass's 
wife  was  sick,  and  that  he  had  gone  home,  and 
then  turning  to  me,  said,  "  No  matter,  what  he  had 
to  say  could  equally  be  addressed  to  me  as  Cass's 
follower."  When  Clayton  got  through,  I  made  my 
speech,  which  used  him  up.  I  stated  all  that  I  had 
previously  said  in  the  secret  session,  when  the  treaty 
was  ratified,  and  a  good  deal  more.  The  speech 
made  a  great  impression  upon  the  country,  and 
gained  me  great  fame  and  reputation,  and  the 
treaty  has  ~been  odious  ever  since. 


THE  PACIFIC  RAILKOAD. 

THE  first  idea  of  a  railroad  to  the  Pacific  origi- 
nated more  than  twenty  years  ago,  and  the  first 
demonstration  that  I  am  aware  of  in  favor  of  the 
project  was  in  a  public  meeting  at  Dubuque,  Iowa, 
about  1838.  A  man  by  the  name  of  Eli  Whitney 
some  fifteen  years  ago  petitioned  Congress  to  make 
a  grant  of  one  hundred  millions  of  acres  of  land  to 
him,  to  enable  him  to  construct  a  railroad  to  the 
Pacific,  and  offered,  as  security  for  the  faithful  appli- 
cation of  the  lands  to  that  object,  the  pledge  of  Ms 
honor,  he  being  a  broken-down  merchant  at  the 

9  O 

time,  and  having  no  means  of  support,  and  he 
now  keeps  a  dairy  farm  near  this  city.  His 
application  was  renewed  for  several  sessions,  and 
was  backed  by  a  large  number  of  speculators  in 
and  out  of  Congress,  but  it  received  very  little 
favor. 

The  measure  was    more  seriously   entertained 


218  THE   PACIFIC   EAILEOAD. 

after  the  acquisition  of  New  Mexico  and  California, 
and  the  settlement  of  the  northern  boundary  of 
Oregon,  and  the  organization  of  the  Oregon  Terri- 
tory. As  early  as  1845,  Mr.  Douglas  proposed  a 
grant  of  alternate  sections  of  land  to  the  States  of 
Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  Iowa,  to  aid  in  the  con- 
struction of  a  railroad  from  Lake  Erie,  via  Chicago 
and  Rock  Island,  to  the  Missouri  River,  and  pre- 
pared a  bill  to  organize  the  Territory  of  Nebraska, 
extending  from  the  Missouri  River  to  the  summit 
of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  the  Territory  of  Ore- 
gon, to  extend  from  the  same  summit  to  the  Pacific 
Ocean,  and  to  reserve  to  each  of  said  Territories  the 
alternate  sections  of  land  for  forty  miles  on  each 
side  of  a  line  of  railroad,  from  such  point  on  the 
Missouri  River  as  the  road  from  Lake  Erie  should 
cross  the  same,  and  thence  to  the  navigable  waters 
of  the  Pacific,  in  the  Territory  of  Oregon,  or  on  the 
Bay  of  San  Francisco,  in  the  event  that  California 
should  be  annexed  in  time.  Not  that  this  annexa- 
tion was  then  improbable,  but  this  was  inserted  to 
attract  public  attention  to  the  subject.  With  a 
view  of  calling  public  attention  to  the  importance 
of  this  road,  Mr.  Douglas  issued  an  address  to  the 
people  of  Illinois,  in  support  of  the  measure,  which 
was  widely  circulated  throughout  the  country. 


THE   PACIFIC   RAILROAD.  219 

Since  the  admission  of  California  into  the  Union 
in  1850,  a  project  for  a  Pacific  Railroad  has  been 
introduced  into  both  Houses  of  Congress  at  each 
session,  and  has  been  favorably  reported  upon  by  a 
select  committee  in  each  House.  The  main  pro- 
visions of  these  bills  were,  that  Congress  should 
make  an  appropriation  of  lands,  varying  in  the  dif- 
ferent bills  from  fifteen  to  forty  sections  per  mile, 
from  the  Missouri  River  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and 
then  providing  that  the  President  of  the  United 
States  should  receive  sealed  proposals  from  contract- 
ors for  the  construction  of  the  road ;  the  contract- 
ors to  construct  the  road  at  their  own  expense,  and 
to  own  it  as  their  property,  when  constructed  ;  and 
that  the  United  States  would  make  a  donation  of 
the  lands  to  be  conveyed  to  the  company  so  far  and 
so  fast  as  the  road  should  be  completed  through  the 
same ;  and  that  the  United  States  would  make  a  con- 
tract in  advance  for  the  transportation  of  the  United 
States  mails,  army  and  navy  supplies,  and  all  other 
freights  for  the  use  of  the  Government  at  fair  prices 
to  be  determined  by  the  bids.  These  bids  were  to 
be  received  on  the  following  points  :  first,  within 
how  short  a  time  will  the  contractors  complete  the 
road  ?  second,  at  what  rate  per  annum  will  the  con- 
tractors carry  the  mails  and  other  Government 


220  THE   PACIFIC  RAILROAD. 

freight,  for  a  period  of  twenty  years,  from  the  com- 
pletion of  the  road  ?  "When  all  the  bids  were  re- 
ceived, it  was  made  the  duty  of  the  President,  in 
the  presence  of  his  Cabinet,  and  such  other  persons 
as  chose  to  be  present,  to  open  the  bids  and  assign 
the  contract  to  those  contractors  whose  bids  should 
be  most  favorable  to  the  interests  of  the  United 
States,  having  in  view  the  shortness  of  time  within 
which  they  would  construct  the  road,  and  the  cheap- 
ness of  transportation  upon  it.  The  last  bill  reported 
to  the  Senate  also  proposed  that  the  United  States 
should  loan  to  the  contractors  their  five  per  cent, 
bonds  to  the  amount  of  twelve  thousand  five  hundred 
dollars  per  mile,  for  each  mile  of  the  road,  which 
was  to  be  repaid  to  the  United  States  in  mail  and 
other  Government  service  upon  the  road. 

During  the  Presidential  canvass  of  1856,  the 
Democratic  party  pledged  itself,  by  a  resolution  of 
the  Cincinnati  Convention,  to  support  a  Pacific 
Railroad ;  and  the  .Republican  party,  by  a  resolution 
of  their  National  Convention  at  Philadelphia,  gave 
a  similar  pledge ;  and  during  the  canvass,  each  of 
the  Presidential  candidates,  Buchanan,  Fremont, 
and  Fillmore,  wrote  letters  advocating  the  measure. 
But  notwithstanding  these  pledges  by  all  the  par- 
ties and  all  the  candidates,  the  friends  of  the  rneas- 


THE   PACIFIC   KAILKOAD.  221 

lire  have  never  been  able  to  get  a  majority  vote  in 
its  favor  in  either  House  of  Congress.  I  doubt 
whether  there  has  been  a  majority  for  the  measure  ; 
not  a  majority  in  fact,  only  a  professing  majority. 
They  are  divided  on  routes  and  plans. 

Can  a  great  work  like  this  go  in  advance  of  the 
growth  and  settlement  of  the  country  ? 

No,  it  will  hardly  be  executed  in  advance  of  the 
growth  and  settlement  of  the  country. 


THE   END. 


